Soulful
by N0bodE
Summary: AltPower!Taylor. Heroes and Villains sometimes experience the most vile, weird or traumatizing things in order to have their powers trigger. While Taylor did just have a traumatizing experience inside her locker she didn't quite expect to find a talking flower offering her power in exchange for one thing. Her Soul.
1. A Proposition

(AN: Credit for this idea goes to the guy in the following link threa "forums .spacebattles posts/19815629/" me and my co-writer just decided to roll with it since I'm UT trash and he's a fan of both. If you want to see the link just remove the spaces, bloody site software.)

It was dark, cramped, pads sticking to her along with her own vomit, making it even more rank than it was. Her throat was hoarse, from the acid of her stomach coating the inside of her windpipe and from her screaming for help from inside the locker. Nothing but slime, waste and the smell of her own vomit meeting her with a reply, a reminder that all those that had once cared stopped a long time ago. Taylor raised her hands up once more to try and force the locker open again, ignoring the fact that she and her small frame couldn't hope to budge it, desperation driving any type of rational thought from her brain.

Except her hands met nothing this time, the confines of her locker suddenly gone as if it had simply disappeared from existence. She fell to the ground, the unexpected impact combined with her screaming for help leaving her gasping for air, so glad to be free of the locker that Emma had shoved her into. Groping around on the ground she felt grass, a slight tingle of the sun on her skin and the slimy crap now collecting onto the ground around her.

She didn't notice the yellow flower just ahead of her, too busy hugging herself in a fetal position on the ground. So it decided to talk first. "Well howdy there Miss!" That startled Taylor up off the ground and in a flail of limbs she was sitting and staring at the flower that had just talked, entire body tense and seeming ready to bolt, eyes wide and pupils dilated. "Golly are you okay, you seem hurt." The flower's smiling face grew more concerned as its eyes wandered up and down her body.

She stared at it for a few moments before whispering with a finger raised accusingly, not sure what to make of the sight in front of her eyes. "You-you're a talking flower."

It nodded, bouncing up and down in its spot slightly. "I'm Flowey THE talking flower, the one and only. Why are you covered in all that stuff?" It waved one of the leafs it had at its side like it would a hand, pointing at the rancid stuff on her.

"S-some bullies at my school." She stammered, still not sure what to make of the situation, her eyes darting around the 'room' they were in reminding her of a cavern with the only lit spot being the patch of grass she was on under a hole in the ceiling of the cavern. Everything else was black, pitch black so she couldn't see past the lighted spot just around her.

Flowey tutted its tongue. "Well shucks, that's not good. At least you didn't fall down from up there," It pointed its leaf up at the light in the roof. "You just kind of appeared down here, so no broken limbs at least right?" It smiled before frowning slightly, craning its stem back so it could look up at the hole.. "You don't know how you got down here do you?"

Rocking back and forth slightly in her sitting position she curled her arms around her knees, reminded of the fact she had no idea where she was. "I-I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me."

Its right leaf tapped the equivalent of its chin. "Well I suppose some type of magic I haven't seen before, though I don't see who's left around to use any magic though. Everybody kind of left a few days ago."

That comment caught her attention, it had said magic. Something that a lot of people called various parahuman powers was magic, which meant this flower could be some weird case of one. "Are you a cape?"

It raised an eyebrow and half-smiled. "No, I'm a flower, silly."

"A cape is a hero or, a villain. Somebody with powers that makes them stand out." She hurriedly explained.

"Well I guess I'm a cape then." It shrugged it's leafs and shook its head with a slight laugh. "First time I've heard of that term though." It leaned forward, eyes narrowing, mouth becoming a tight line as if it was thinking intensely.

"What are you doing?" She whimpered, hugging herself tighter, a feeling of unease washing over her as it begun to smile, little fangs becoming apparent in its smile.

Leaning back Flowey toned down its smile slightly so it was just grinning and thought out loud to itself. "You strike me as a nice girl. But vulnerable and weak. What if I could offer you a way to become strong, save whoever you want, even take revenge on those bullies of yours?"

She stared at the little flower as he bounced his head back and forth with eagerness written across its face. "H-how?"

"Well Miss if you could move your legs and arms out of the way for a second." He said, nodding towards her.

Slowly obliging the flower's request she looked down and saw the glowing yellow heart on her chest, floating in front of them both. Flowey pointed at the heart. "That is your soul, the very culmination of your being. Humans have the strongest souls, able to do things beyond imagining but can't truly unlock their potential." It pointed back at itself. "Then there are the Monsters, such weak souls but are able to use it to their full potential and can beat humans in many things thanks to their magic." It smiled, fangs and all. "I propose you let our souls fuse. You will get the power to protect yourself from the bullies. Even the power to save everyone in the world if you want."

"I- I don't know." She stuttered out, immensely uncomfortable. That heart there was supposedly her soul. In almost every piece of media, messing with your soul is never a good idea.

"Come on, don't you want to be a HERO?" Flowey asked in a sickeningly sweet voice. "You could get the power to do whatever you want. And if my guess is correct about what's going on with you, it would hardly make things WORSE by taking this deal. What can you lose that you haven't already given up on?"

She froze. How did he know? After a moment of panic, she pushed it aside, DETERMINED to become a HERO. "What do I need to do."

"It's really quite simple. All you have to do is take mine, and press it against yours. Here you go!" With a happy chirp, another heart appeared, inverted, cracked, and seemingly made of glass. "I know it's not much to look at, but things have been kinda rough."

After a slight moment, she unfolded her arms from around herself, reached forward, and grasped it, a shiver visibly passing through Flowey when she did so. It felt cold, fragile, and hollow, though there seemed to still be a slight trace of warmth, slowly bleeding out. "Come on, you can do it. Simply bring the two together."

With his prompting, she drew it towards her chest, and towards her Soul. When the two met, her soul seemed to engulf his. And then, she felt a rush of power, of emotions, of memories. She panicked, as she felt another person's entire being became part of hers. She felt Flowey's impatience, fear, anxiety, loneliness, hatred, she felt it all.

Slowly, the world around them faded to black, and she was back, trapped in The Locker. Her thoughts merged with his, and she panicked, and drawing upon an old cherished memory, she summoned flames, blasting outwards, to free her, to get her out of The Locker. With a loud bang, the door flew forward and she stumbled out, barely noticing the burning pile of trash she left behind in her locker, nor her furred hands transforming back to normal as she passed out.


	2. A Offer

Taylor awoke with a scream, the dreams of the past already fading from memory, only leaving the impression of hopelessness and a cold, empty feeling. She frantically looked around, trying to figure out where she was, and with a sigh of relief found she was not in either a patch of golden flowers, nor in the Lab like she feared she would wind up in. She quickly determined she was in a hospital room, by way of the IV bag hanging up beside her, mostly white interior and bedspread and a cheap tv hanging up in the corner of the room. Then she noticed her dad on the floor, looking at her in shock, chair laying beside him leading her to presume he was sitting in it till she startled him out of it with her scream.

"Taylor!" He shouted when he got his wits about him, scrambling to his feet he embraced her in a tight hug. She suddenly felt the intense desire to cry, as well as a sense of dejavu, as if she has been in this position a dozen times before.

'sorry.'

"I was so worried!" He cried into her shoulder. "First you didn't come home, and I was up all night waiting for you, and then I got a phonecall in the morning, and they found you in- oh god, I'm so happy that you're alive, I couldn't bear to lose you too." And at that, she couldn't hold back the tears any more, and started crying too, holding onto him as tightly as her thin arms could.

They stayed like that for a while, neither party wanting to let go. But after a time, they did. Danny had a conflicted look on his face, "I better go tell a nurse that you are awake. You alright being alone for a little bit?"

"It's alright dad. I will be fine." She reassured him sadly. With that, he slipped out, and her thoughts turned back to the last thing she remembered, after the locker. Was all that a fever dream? Did she really go insane there?

'I'm sorry, but that wasn't a dream.' Stated a voice in her head.

She jumped at the voice. Oh god, she really did go crazy.

'You're not crazy! I'm real! Look.' She then felt a strange sensation, as if she was just shoved out of the driver's seat into the passenger's seat, and she watched as she slowly shrunk smaller in the bed, white fur sprout over her arms, and her hospital robes turn into a green and yellow sweater. "See? You couldn't do this before, now could you?" She felt herself say, but in a voice not her own, younger, higher pitched but male all the same. A white-furred paw moved into her field of vision, fingers splayed outward as if she was inspecting them, the alien sensation of her own limbs moving without her say so sending a shiver down her spine. "Feels nice to wake up somewhere new. I'm sure you disagree though, we are kind of in a hospital."

'What?' Was all she could manage to say, or rather think, of the fact she couldn't control her own body.

"Hang on a second." Her mouth said and she felt the same sensation as before except it was reversed with her being thrown into the driver's seat. Blinking several times she stared at her furry hands, expecting them to start moving again at any second, slightly glad to see her hands slowly turn back to normal, fur receding back into her fingers, shirt and pants turning back into her robe and her height returning. She more or less ignored that part and focused more on the fact she had a voice in her head and for a moment she lost control of her own body. 'Come on you remember me, I find it kind of hard to think you'd forget about a talking flower considering your reaction.'

"So it wasn't a dream?" She asked the voice, wiggling each of her fingers one at a time as if to shake that earlier alien feeling off.

'You can just talk in our head, I was just enjoying the feeling of a regular mouth again. Sorry if that felt weird.' Flowey apologized.

She glanced at the door that her dad had left through, hoping for him not to come back for a few minutes so she could gather her senses. 'Can… can you explain this to me?'

Even though it was in her head she could still hear the audible sigh. 'I already kind of explained it but I suppose you weren't exactly all there. I offered you a deal to fuse our souls, you with all your magic, me with my ability to use that magic. You get powers to be a hero or villain or whatever, I get an actual body again.' That wasn't part of the deal she'd made with that flower.

Or at least she didn't think so. She felt it best to not bring up that subject with a talking flower that could apparently hijack her body anytime it wanted now. 'Please tell me I'm not going to lose control of my body?'

'We kinda share the body now. Our souls are fused, so we have equal control of it, and thus share it.' Flowey explained.

She replied fell back on the pillow and rubbed at her temples, wondering how life would be now. 'So is there anything you wanted besides a body?'

She swore she could hear it shrug in her mind. 'Well, it's kinda nice to feel emotions again.' Before she could question that, it quickly moved on. 'Oh! Uh, want me to tell you want we can do?'

She nodded.

'We can shoot all kinds of magic bullets. Fire should be the easiest, and always looks super cool, going all FWOOSH, and cast dramatic lighting. Looks extra cool with a cape. We can do more, but there are all kinds, so they are kinda hard to list. With the power of your soul, they should be really strong too. My dad could break boulders really easily.'

It caught her off guard with how ecstatic it sounded, almost like a child would talk. It definitely wasn't talking like it was before, all creepy-like. 'Sounds great.'

'Oh, when am I going to see one of these capes as you called them? I wanna see somebody in costume! I bet they are going to look super awesome, just like the ones in the comics.'

Thinking for a few seconds before responding she asked, 'How old are you?'

'I'm- ...uuuuh. Not sure. It got sorta hard to keep track of time. I'm at least nine. Why?'

'Just asking.' So she had a nine year old Monster living in her head, could shoot fire, various bullets that maybe could break boulders. Or she went insane, that was just as likely. She pinched herself to see if she was dreaming, but as the voice said, 'Ouch! Hey, what was that for!' in her head when it started hurting she decided she wasn't.

As if to keep her from dwelling more on the matter her dad came back in, with a doctor in tow, wearing a white lab-coat, like in some of those hospital shows she'd seen on TV. Didn't actually expect some of them to wear a lab-coat. The Doctor walked up next to her and offered a smile, as her dad stood a few paces behind him, looking over the man's shoulder. "Glad to see you're awake Taylor, you gave your father quite a scare. So tell me how do you feel right now, anything feel wrong?"

Well she did have a kid in her head. "I feel tired."

Nodding he inspected the IV bag next to her. "Feel well enough for us to run a few exams? Not everyday somebody gets into a…" He paused as if to find the right word for her being shoved into a locker full of tampons, pads and her own vomit. A familiar feeling rose from her stomach and she shoved it back down. "Predicament quite like yours."

"Ready whenever you are." She forced a smile. He nodded and reached into his coat's pocket and pulled out a small pen-like object and held it up to her face and asked her to follow it as he turned on the flashlight inside, making a few positive comments that made her dad give a sigh of relief. The Doctor then followed that up with some tests that basically amounted in her mind to poking her and seeing if it hurt at any time, each time seeming to make her dad relax just a slight bit more.

Seemingly satisfied with his prodding the Doctor took a step back and looked between the two of them with a satisfied smile. "Well as far as I can tell she's physically fine, I can't say anything emotionally. I will recommend a day's rest here though for observation, make sure there's nothing that we missed of course."

Danny breathed a massive sigh of relief and offered a hand to shake to the Doctor who took it. "I can't tell you how good it is to hear that."

"I have kids of my own Mr. Herbert so I have an idea. If there's any complications don't hesitate to find me, otherwise I need to go take care of some things." With that the Doctor gave a curt nod to Taylor and turned back to the door, opening it to show a pair of nurses walking by and then it shut.

She looked at her dad with a slight grin, both at the fact the prodding was over and she was apparently completely healthy according to the doctor. Her dad returned her grin with a full-on smile, which slowly but surely deteriorated into a frown, compounded by his hands tightening into loose fists at his sides, before he finally asked, "Now what happened to you? I know for a fact none of this was your fault and I've noticed you getting a bit more and more distant lately. Did some kids do this?"

Her grin fell away as she cast her gaze to the bedsheets in front of her, her hands laying on top of them. She should have known he'd get to that sooner than later, he had always been protective ever since Mom died, always giving her advice that would help steer her away from the bad elements of Brockton Bay. So when she woke up in a hospital because of those bitches at school of course he'd be furious. He wouldn't be able to do anything about it, they were the popular kids and nobody had helped her the entire time so why would anybody stand up for her now? She decided it was best to try and not avoid the issue. "Some bullies shoved me into my locker after stuffing it full of tampons and things like that."

She swore she could feel his anger, which earlier had been simmering, turn into a fire at that point. His gritted his teeth, knuckles turned white as his fists clenched and his face turned just as red as his anger. "What? Who did this? I fucking swear I'm going to raise hell with that school, this never should have happened!" He kept growing steadily louder, reminding her of the time she'd overheard him yelling at the City representative that had told him they were cutting funds to the Docks.

Somebody at the door knocked and her dad turned his attention to it, volume of his voice still increasing with each second. "We're busy in here!" The door cracked open a little bit to reveal somebody that she would never have expected to see in a hospital, her eyes widening to the size of saucers as she realized who was peeking into her hospital room, sitting upright in her bed. Wearing midnight-blue armor, with silver highlights and a helmet that covered all but his face, showing only his trimmed beard and white skin color to hint as to his identity, Armsmaster held the door slightly open and was watching through the opening.

Armsmaster asked through the cracked open door, with only his head close to entering the room. "Should I come back later then?"

Danny blinked several times, staring at the hero for a few moments before realizing he was staring. Then his eyes widened and a silly half-smile was plastered onto his face, taking a verbal backstep. "Oh, um I'm so sorry Armsmaster, I didn't know that was you and I-" He shut himself up as Armsmaster held up a hand.

"Rest assured I'm not upset, considering it's your daughter in the hospital you have a right to be pissed off. I'm just wanting to talk to her for a few minutes, alone if you wouldn't mind." Danny blinked again and looked at her for a moment, his face telling her that he didn't want to leave.

But he looked back at Armsmaster who was waiting outside the room patiently. "You won't take long will you?"

Armsmaster shook his head and fully opened the door, letting her dad leave, who looked back at her with a final glance. Then Armsmaster closed the door behind himself as he stepped in, looking over her once with a slight smile tugging at the edge of his lips. "I heard the Doctor said you were doing well?"

She could only manage a nod as the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, the most influential hero in the city asked her a question. He didn't say anything for a second, expecting her to say more but resumed talking when he realized she wasn't. "Do you know why I'm here?" She shook her head. Crossing his arms he answered his own question, with a small hint of pride showing through. "It's customary for somebody from the Protectorate to talk to potential members of the Wards."

Her in the Wards? The minor's version of the Protectorate? A hero in training? She managed only a dumb sounding, "What."

He nodded. "Yes I'm inviting you to join the Wards." One of his arms unfolded so he could hold his chin in thought. "You do remember how you got out of the locker you were in don't you?"

"S-sorta." She shrugged, fingers playing with the blanket not of her own accord.

"So you don't remember it?" He asked more as a confirmation of what she said than an actual question. "Then I'll tell you what the janitor who found you saw, that being the front of your locker burnt, lying on the other side of the hallway and there were cracks in the wall where it presumably slammed into the wall. A cape was clearly involved, presumably you. We did some cleaning up, and only me and a few others know a cape was involved in the incident, you were officially found when the Janitor smelt something foul and opened the locker. Part of something called the Unwritten Rules, don't expose a capes civilian identity. Which is the reason why I asked your dad to leave the room, in case you haven't told him. He will need to know if you are to join the wards, but that is your decision. Another reason is how he furious he was, about what I can only assume was what happened to you in that locker, which brings up the question of how you ended up in it." He stated with a slight frown.

She clenched the blankets, not sure if she should tell him who did it or not. "Some bullies at school shoved me into the locker after filling it with every disgusting thing they could find and locked me in it. I didn't get a chance to see who."

He uncrossed his arms and hung his thumbs into the belt, his right fingers dancing against his pant leg, a small smile on his face. "I can assure you that I'll personally look into this, nobody will sweep it under the rug or twist the story with me handling it."

Armsmaster, a tinker, a smart man known for always getting the job done was telling her he'd personally handle the girls that had been making her life a living hell. Groaning she fell back onto the pillows behind her and folded her hands against her chest, one finger still wiggling around for some reason. Was that kid in her head bored? "Three girls are the main cause of this, Emma, Sophia and Madison. They've been doing it since the beginning of the year, not the locker thing but screwing with me and doing whatever they can to try and make me cry or run."

"I'm sorry can you repeat the names again?" He asked, his tone a slight bit harder than it was before. She didn't notice.

Covering her face in exasperation she told their full names, having long ago memorized the names of her tormentors. "Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, Madison Clements, the terrible trio that hound me any moment at school they get. I've been forced to eat in the bathrooms if I don't want to be heckled and even then they still get me sometimes."

"You can be rest assured this will be taken care of before you get back into school." He reached into one of his belt's pouches pulling out a small card and extending it to her. "I'm not asking you to make your decision today, tomorrow or even in a week, so this card has a number so that you can call me and make your decision. Is there anything you'd like to know before I leave?"

She took the card and stared at it, midnight blue with white lettering, numbers underneath it. Then she turned the card over once to see if there was anything on the back. There wasn't and her eyebrows creased in slight confusion. "Isn't there paperwork and money and a lot of other things we need to go over first?"

Again he shook his head. "Not unless you already made your decision, if you say yes then we'd talk about all the specifics at Headquarters and you'd still be free to say no at any time."

Standing before her was a man asking her if she wanted to be something she'd always wanted to be in life, a hero, somebody that could make a difference in the world, who wouldn't have to put up with the crap she got from Emma and her friends. But when she got the question she wasn't sure how to answer, it was something she wasn't sure how to answer. She'd be a hero but she'd be responsible for saving others, she could get hurt or killed and what would her dad do if that happened? Not to mention she might be unstable if that voice was any indication. "I'll uh… call you within the week."

"While you think it over I'll handle these girls." He said with a nod, walking back to the door and casting one final glance to her, thinking to himself silently. Then he opened the door and half-closed it behind himself, presumably talking to her dad because he didn't immediately come back in. It was only after a few minutes did he come back in, a hand roaming over the back of his head.

He gave a tired smile and walked over to her bedside, grabbing her hand. "So Armsmaster is taking care of this then huh?" He looked away and chuckled slightly. "Well at least we both know those brats at your school are going to get what they deserve." Turning back to her he frowned slightly and leaned in to her face, one hand going to her forehead. "Are you sure you're feeling alright Taylor, you don't look too good."

"Just a little tired that's it." Rolling her eyes she reached up to his hand and pushed it away. "You should get back to work, the Docks need you more than I do right now." It was true too, he was the only man that would stand up and demand what was needed for the Docks while also knowing when to step back and wait, never giving up.

He looked surprised for a moment then smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "You're sure you're alright?"

"Mmmhmmm. I'll see you tomorrow okay dad?"

"We'll get something to eat, a little celebration that you're fine." He said walking to the door, pausing at it to wave bye to her and then gently shut it behind him. Leaving Taylor alone with her own thoughts in the hospital bed, to think about a life-changing decision that she'd been offered.

'So what are you going to do?' The voice asked tentatively.

Oh right, she had that kid in her head now. 'I don't know, I mean it's what I've wanted but…' She trailed off thinking off the actual things behind being a hero, it wasn't like what a kid would think of when they always said they wanted to be one. It was an actual, dangerous, responsible job that Armsmaster, a role model had asked her about. 'Just the idea of having people's lives in my hands… it's daunting.'

'I- um, I'd like to give being a hero a try." He said shyly. 'I mean, if you don't want to, that's fine. It's your life, I don't want to intrude more than I already am.' He hastily added on.

She rolled her eyes, pulling the blanket up over her shoulder and nestling into the bed. 'That's funny. The voice in my head saying it doesn't want to intrude even though I have basically no privacy now.' Sighing she added, 'But I suppose it's a good thing you want to be a hero at least, something to agree with the voice in my head about.'

He was silent for a moment, till she noticed he was sniffling. 'I'm sorry I tricked you. I got desperate, I didn't want to be soulless again. I should have stayed there, not bothering anyone. I'm sorry.'

Even if it was inside of head it was still a kid wasn't it? Rolling off her side and onto her back she drug her hand through her hair, trying to think of how to calm down the kid that was probably crying in the back of her head. 'It's okay, you helped me out in what I can honestly say was the worst moment of my life. I even wanted to be a hero for the longest time, it's just… just that I'm angry at those girls I guess.'

She felt him nod in her head, and the sniffling lessened. After a moment, he asked 'Uh, what are those wards things Armsmaster mentioned earlier?'

'Wards are basically juvenile superhero teams so that kids can learn to use their powers and get some proper role models in their life. I think we get paid, get a room, make friends and they help teach us how to use our powers, in exchange we be their heroes.' She explained, shutting her eyes and finally settling into the bed.

'That doesn't sound bad. Been awhile since I had any friends…' He said, mostly to himself. He began to say something else, but got interrupted by a yawn. 'Ah man, why am I tired? We just woke up!' She smiled at the voice's question, already feeling sleep tugging at her mind.

'Because I'm tired.' With that she fell asleep.


	3. Pure Intentions

A few days later, Taylor stood in an abandoned part of the docks, the closest people around being the sleeping hobo two blocks down from where they were now. She had been released from the hospital two days ago, since despite her ordeal she didn't have anything worse than some bruises and scrapes on her hands. Her dad told her to stay home and rest, but she needed to figure out the limits of her powers in order to answer Armsmaster. With an excuse of going out or a run her dad had let her go. Plus, she was getting a little stir crazy?

"Ok, so, how do we do this?" Taylor asked Flowey, aloud because it felt more natural, plus they were alone so there was no risk of someone overhearing her talk to the voice in her head.

"Well, it's really quite easy in concept." She felt her mouth say. "You first have to draw the magic from you soul into the world around you. Like this." He said, while snapping her fingers. Nothing happened. "Huh?" He said, waving her arm about a few more times. "Where's our magic? I know we have some, we used it earlier. Maybe if I..." She then felt that sensation she felt before, as if she was shoved out of the driver seat of her body. And once again, she watched her body shrink, as white fur sprouted out of her skin and clothes change into a green and yellow sweater and black pants..

This time, when he waved his arm a bunch of multicolored sparks flew out. "Alright! For some reason, it seems like we can only do magic while we have my form. Which is rather weird." He remained silent for a few moments, before moving on. "Anyways, try to feel your soul, more particularly the flow of magic while I create these Ethereal Projections."

He started to do many more, shooting out multi-colored stars and sparks all over the place. She tried to ignore that, and focus in on herself. It was surprisingly easy to ignore the sensations of her body when she wasn't in the driver seat like this. She focused in on herself, looking for something, and feeling a tad silly for doing so, seeming like new age meditation nonsense. But she did so none the less, and she felt kinda a tickle, deep in her chest. Said tickle flared with every burst of stars Flowey let loose. 'I- I think I found it.'

"Alrighty, now pay attention to it while I do something a bit bigger." When he said that, the tickle flared, and she felt like a portion of it separated itself from her, feeling a tad bit emptier than before. Out in the real world, Flowey was now holding a fire-ball, and tossing it between his paws. "Did you feel that?"

'Yeah.'

"Golly, you are picking this up fast. You think you can do it yourself?"

Mentally nodding, she reached into herself and 'grabbed' at where she felt the tickle, and felt the tickle return. Assuming she was on the right-track, she pulled a portion out and up, but the piece she grabbed seemed much larger. She felt his eyebrows rise up and heard him shout "Wait! That's too-" but the rest was drowned out by a loud bang, and her eyes were assaulted by flashing lights.

When she finished rubbing the spots out of her eyes, and she noted it was HER doing the rubbing, she looked around and gasped in amazement. Millions of lights, each like a miniature sun in their own right, blue, red, orange and every color between was there as more and more seemed to come into focus. Some were just pinpricks, barely noticeable in the sea of lights, others the size of baseballs, all just as bright as one another even the ones that were a few dozen feet away, seeming to be frozen in the air.

After a few moments, Flowey shouted "WOAH! That was awesome! And we have magic to spare!"

She looked down at their paws, flexing their claws as they felt electrified with energy. "That.. was cool. What else can we do with this type of power?" She asked, feeling a bit giddy with how that felt.

"Well, like I said earlier, we can form it into various types of magical bullets. To do that, all you have to do is form the magic before expressing it. Expressing unformed magic just gets you lights like this. But, oh boy, with all the power you just put out, we could probably level a building! And we didn't break a sweat! This is awesome!" He exclaimed, and she felt his legs do a kinda dance as he bounced around with excitement.

Clasping her hands together she let him keep his dance going while she grinned. That did feel so good and the way he was talking, just made such an explosive and colorful display of magic. "Okay, okay show me how to do fire magic."

"Oh, well, that's easy. You just-"

"You know when me and my friends see a giant explosion of lights, we didn't expect to see a fucking goat thing talking to itself!" Shouted an accented man from behind them. They turned to see who it was yelling to notice the four men behind them, who Taylor was able to recognize as part of the Azn Bad Boys, the all asian gang that controlled the docks. Two were around her age, one with a knife sheathed at their side and the other with a pistol on their side, the other two looking to be in their twenties, one unarmed and the other with a pipe of all things. Each of them wore some type of red and green cloth on their bodies, whether it was bandana, jacket, pants or other. The one that had presumably talked, the one with the pipe continued. "So what exactly are you doing in our territory freak?"

"Oh, uh, howdy!" Flowey nervously said. "Sorry about intruding, w- I was just looking for somewhere out of the way to practice, as to not disturb people. And, well, I kinda misjudged how much power to use." He gestured to all the lights around him. "Sorry for bothering you, I will just be on my way." With that said, he started walking away from them.

"Hold the fuck up for a second," They both froze in their tracks.

It was best not to antagonize them, even if they were wanting to try their new abilities Flowey, the expert on it, didn't seem to be entirely sure of what they could do. So trying their powers on the gang members wouldn't be the best idea. They didn't seem to be too hostile, evident by the fact none of them were actually wielding their weapons. So she half answered and half asked, "Err yes?"

The lead one shook his head with a grin, twirling the pipe in his left hand. "Are you a fucking cowboy goat or something? Who says howdy? In all seriousness, what the fuck is this shit?" He gestured at the lights with the pipe. "We're not going to have to worry about being fried are we?"

She wasn't quite sure herself and it wouldn't do for it to be an accidental lie and get them mad at the her and the voice. 'Flowey would you mind telling him?'

"No, no." He said, waving his hands back and forth. "They are quite harmless. Sorta intangible, really. While you can whiff them around if you tried, they normally would float right through you."

Leader raised his eyebrows and took a step forward to the lights, using his pipe to to lightly swing at one, which passed through without any effort. Then he slowly raised his hand to one, wincing up until the point he actually touched one and nothing happened. He stood back up to his full height and fully waved his hand through several, looking back at the other three with a smile. "You guys have no idea how trippy this is." Then he looked back her. "So the reason you're exploding your firework powers in our territory is what, hoping to bring some friendly color to this side of town?"

"Like I said that was an accident. I think green and read are very nice colors. I could make more green and red if you like?"

Leader laughed at that, even his subordinates did. "You're just a little brat ain't ya?" He asked with a shrug. "How about you get lost before one of my less friendly bosses comes along, on one condition." He held up one finger next to his smile. "Do some more of that fireworks thing, green and red along the way back home, I'm sure the bosses would like to see our colors spread around." He said with a wave of his pipe around him to the warehouses.

"Sure thing!" He pointed his finger up in the air like a gun, tongue sticking out in concentration. She felt a portion of her magic break off, bigger than he did for the fireball but much smaller than what she used, and felt it twist, before a green rocket shot from his finger into the sky. It went up a distance before exploding into green and red lights that slowly rained down. "How's that!?"

They all laughed at that, Leader shaking his head. "Just perfect kid." He turned to the teenager with a knife at their side. "Sain why don't you escort our new friend back home and help encourage them if they get tired of shooting fireworks." Sain nodded and took a step forward, crossing his arms. "See you around goaty." With that Leader left with his two other friends in tow, leaving Sain and them alone.

Sain looked at them with an amused smile and talked with a slight accent, motioning them to walk as he came up beside them, eyeing the lights around him. "You not from around here are you? Not good idea come here, not good place for child."

Flowey fired off another firework as Taylor inwardly groaned at the situation they were in. Sure she could probably beat this one person with her powers but she didn't know all of them and Flowey seemed content enough to do as he was asked, more than likely naive as to who they were. So she took the initiative this time. "I was just looking for an isolated place to practice, didn't mean to attract attention."

"So you say already. What your name?" Sain asked, coming up beside them as Flowey leveled a finger at just above the roof of a building and fired off another explosion of green and red that stayed floating there.

A name. She hadn't even thought of a name yet, too busy talking to Flowey in her head and getting used to the idea of sharing her body with somebody else, leaving her with no idea as to what type of a name they could have. They looked like a goat, had magic, shoot fire… what type of name would be good for that? Maybe- "Asriel."

"Azreal? Why that name?" Sain asked, his accent not helping with the name her mouth had just said without her input.

Flowey shrugged. "Why are you called Sain?"

"Sain is my name." He replied with a frown at their question, turning around to walk backwards beside them so they' would be more or less face to face. "My name and a cape name are two different things."

"Oooooh. Well, no one knows my name, so might as well use it for my cape name." He said, shrugging again.

Sain raised an eyebrow at that, along with Taylor. At least inwardly she did. She thought her passenger's name was Flowey. "Not good idea that, but you're the cape here." He glanced up as Asriel shot off another rocket. "Does that not tire you, seems like it be exhausting to you."

"Not at all. I could do this all day. It would take making them MUCH bigger to be tiring."

He nodded, waving his hand through one of the lights as they both rounded the corner at a warehouse and continued down another row. "How big can your lights get? We covered lot of streets with lights and I like to see what you could do."

He stopped, and looked down for a moment, brow furrowed in concentration. "I'm not sure." His face then lit up in excitement as he exclaimed "Let's find out!" He again raised his arm into the air like a gun, but this time didn't immediately shoot anything off. Taylor felt a big chunk of her magic break off, even bigger than what she did earlier, and move and twist up their arm to collect at a rapidly growing green and red ball forming on the tip of his finger.

'Wait, wait don-' But before she could get much farther, it shot off into the sky. It went up, and up, and up. It seemed to touch the clouds before it burst with a blinding light. When they could see again, they sky was FILLED with green and red lights, floating down seemingly across the entire city. 'Mother of pearl.'

Beside them Sain reverted to his native language and quietly breathed out. "Shinseina tawagoto." Turning in a slow circle he had the grin of a child at a magic show, which more or less could be how one would explain exactly what happened. Then he looked back to them, eyes wide as saucers. "Dō yawwa sore o okonaimasu ka?"

"Pardon?"

He blinked once and shook his head as he realized that he had been speaking in a different language. "My bad, but how the fuck you do this?"

"Oh, well, Etherial Projections like these are the simplest of Magics. All I really had to do was form it a bit so it was green and red. After that, I just pushed it up, and let it release." He paused, and looked at the sky in concentration. "I could probably do that four more times before running out of Magic." Then a giant grin split across his face and he started to jump in excitement. "This is so AWESOME! I bet I could make it form my face if I tried!"

'Please don't, I'm pretty sure we're already getting too much attention.' She said, watching with their eyes as the lights hung in the air across what seemed to be the entire city. There were so many people that would not appreciate the city being covered in ABB colors, heroes and criminals included.

"Shame you not asian, I think you could been good at graffiti." He said, finally getting a hold of himself at their display of magic. "We should go now, seem to be more light here than other places, not good idea to stay long."

'I agree with him, we need to get moving now.' She said, surprised she was agreeing with a gang member. Yanking back control of their legs she sped them up into a jog, Sain following close behind.

'Um, what's the rush?' He asked in their mind.

Before she could respond, a bright white flash appeared in front of them, and revealed Purity, softly glowing white, alabaster body suit and gloves covering the rest of her skin, but she left nothing on her face, not that anybody would be able to see with how brightly white it shone, practically blinding whoever tried looking at her. She floated before them and stared down at them in anger. "You aren't going anywhere."

Sain beside them stiffened and fear, and Taylor had no idea what to do, an actual and dangerous cape just a dozen or so feet away from them. And of course, Flowey just went ahead and said "Well, howdy miss."

She didn't visibly react to his friendly greeting, the grim line of her mouth making Taylor just a slight bit nervous. She knew Purity from what her past work had included her in, the Empire Eighty-eight a bunch of skinheads that targeted any minorities and as a result attacked some of her dad's workers. Purity if she remembered right was the heavy-hitter for the gang, taking on everyone and anyone and as evident by the fact she wasn't in jail, she was a strong cape. "What did you just do?"

"Oh, well I was seeing how big of a firework I could fire up. Sain here likes green and red, so I did those colors, to make him and his friends happy." He said, gesturing to said gangster who was busy trying to make himself unnoticeable by getting as low as he could behind them.

"Just fireworks huh? They won't hurt anybody? Start any fires?" She asked skeptically.

"Nu-uh. They are completely harmless, just cool looking. See?" He summoned created another light and sent it flying through Sain, who jumped in surprise.

She stared at them for a couple of moments before turning her attention to Sain. "You, scram."

Not needing any further prompting, he quickly turned and ran off. Flowey turned around and waved goodbye before turning his attention back to Purity. "How do you fly like that? It looks so cool! Do you push magic down around you like a jet-pack?"

"Er no… I just kind of want to fly and I do. So you shot off these fireworks of yours for these friends of yours?" She questioned, her head moving side to side to take in all the lights around them.

"I just met them today, so I'm not sure if I can call them friends." He said looking at his feet, and rubbing the back of his head. "But they did ask me to do it, and it's easy, so I did it. Why? Did I do something wrong?" He asked her worriedly.

She sighed and floated down in front of them, glow dimming in intensity such that they could see her face without having to squint overly much. "Green and red colors are associated with the ABB, a gang of criminals. People aren't going to like them having their mark put over the entire city. Plus, they don't know these lights are harmless, don't you think they would get rather worried with them covering the city?"

"oh." he said in a small voice, and Taylor could feel the shame radiating off him.

Purity knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder. "Look, just promise not to do it again, ok? If the lights are as harmless as you say, everything should go over just fine. How long will they last?"

"About 10 minutes."

"Yeah, that should be fine. How about I give you a lift most of the home, ok? Other heroes are certainly going to come investigate, and we don't want you getting in trouble for a mix-up."

He gasped. "You mean I get to fly with you!?"

She smiled at them. "That's correct kiddo." She turned around and offered her back to them. "Climb on." Flowey squealed and jumped onto her back as Taylor remained silent, dumbfounded as to what was going on. Wrapping their legs around her midsection and their arms around her neck, she grabbed their legs and started off slow so they wouldn't accidentally slip out of her grasp. Going up only a few feet a second she hovered them overtop the roofs of each warehouse then stayed there, Flowey letting out little 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' taking in all the sights they could. "Where's your home?"

"That way!" He exclaimed, pointing in the general direction of Taylor's house.

"Hold on then kiddo." With that she started accelerating off in the direction he had pointed in, starting off slightly slow then quickly speeding up until it was all a blur, Flowey laughing in pure joy as the wind ripped at their clothes. It was exhilarating a bit if she thought about it, if she didn't worry about who they were holding onto and how high above the ground they were. It was bad that was all she could focus on wasn't it?

It didn't take long for Purity to get them a reasonable distance away from the Docks before floating down to the ground, Flowey letting out a groan of disappointment as she did. Slipping off her back, he quickly smiled again. "Thanks for the ride miss. It was really fun!"

"You can thank me by not going near the ABB again okay?"

"Sure thing miss. Have a nice day." He said, waving to her as she flew off. Once she was a good distance away, he gave control back to Taylor, and their body changed back to hers.

She stared after Purity before looking around at where she dropped them off, the area looking semi-familiar. Thankfully there weren't any people around despite the fact Purity just left. One thing came to mind though for some reason, taking precedence before the others. "So um… why did you say your name was Asriel? I thought it was Flowey?"

'Oh. I, uh, don't want to be Flowey anymore.' he 'said' sheepishly. 'I wasn't a very nice person when I was Flowey. Now that I'm trying to be good, I'd like to be Asriel again.'

"Okay. I think we're done for today and we should go back home." She said, calmer than she expected and just started walking back home. Maybe it was shellshock, maybe it was too much happening for today. It didn't matter she just wanted to go home now.


	4. Anagram for Serial Murderer

(AN: Do pardon our description of PRT HQ, when me and my Co-writer looked up how to describe it we got little to no info and got turned around based on the fact there's two HQs which beats the purpose of having an HQ. Otherwise do enjoy this chapter that serves as a bit of exposition for those who aren't familiar with UT!)

She rolled the ball of fire in her hands, the fire only feeling warm instead of burning, despite the fact she knew what it was. Flicking her wrist up the ball neared the ceiling before coming back down in her palm and she banished it with a crush of her fist, sighing and falling back down onto her bed as she did. Clapping her furry hands together she summoned dozens of lights that exploded outwards from her in silence, like the ones they had done four days earlier near the ABB's territory, these lights fading away in only a matter of seconds compared to the hours the others had taken. "Anything else I need to know about before I tell my dad?"

' _I can't really think of anything new. But… well, are you going to tell him about me?'_ He asked shyly. Asriel really did seem like a child, one that was afraid of insulting her in any way, always hesitant about doing anything that she wouldn't do herself, only taking control of her body when she asked or told him to. Even then he double checked with her, only ever seeming to be confident when he was in the middle of showing off his magical skills.

"Ummm. No, most of the time when people have voices in their head it's not a good sign for their health. Until I check in with the capes to see if it's natural to have a voice I'm not going to say anything about you. No offense meant of course." Snapping her claws a small pillar of fire erupted from her pointer's fingertip like a lighter but brighter. It helped her to burn away her nervousness of the prospect of telling Danny, knowing he wouldn't like the idea of her putting herself in harm's way.

' _Oh, I don't mind. It's your life, I'm just sorry for tricking you into taking me on.'_ Despite what he said, he sounded a bit dejected.

Letting the flame die off she crossed her arms behind her head, one finger tracing the edge of her elongated ear that went down to her chin. No matter what the subject was, when it came between what she wanted and him he always said something like that. "Why do you keep doing that?"

' _What?'_

"You keep putting yourself down, like you don't matter. Even though you tricked me and it might not have been to help me, you still helped me. It was my body first we both know that but in some ways it's yours too." She removed one hand from behind her head and held it in front of her face, rubbing the claws on each finger against one another. "I'm not asking you to start taking control, just… stop putting yourself down."

' _But I_ don't _matter. Not after what I have done. The world would be a much happier place without me. I should have just stayed where I was, not bothering anyone.'_ He muttered mostly to himself.

Pausing in her fingers rubbing together she disagreed, taking mental note of what he said for later. "I wouldn't be happier without you, I'm about to go to the PRT headquarters, be a hero, something I've always wanted to do. Without you I'd still be that girl that got shoved in a locker, completely weak and powerless."

' _I guess.'_ He mumbled, but didn't sound too convinced.

Dropping her hand back to behind her head she continued, not wanting him to keep his mindset, if not to help him feel better then to make sure the voice in her head didn't get any wrong ideas. "You're the one who knows how to use magic and with that we're going to help people. Tell me that a hero that saves lives, brings families together and stops criminals is worthless, because that's what you're going to help me with."

' _Yeah, a hero. We're going to be a hero, aren't we?'_ Again, he seemed to be mostly talking to himself, though he sounded happier at the end of it.

"Working alongside people like Aegis, Vista, Shadow Stalker, Gallant, Kid Win and Clockblocker. Stopping the drugs, gangs, the monsters like Oni Lee and Empire Eighty Eight." She trailed off, smiling to herself. In a few hours she'd go meet Armsmaster or someone else in charge and join the Wards, becoming one of them and taking charge of her own life for once. A few moments passed and she realized he wasn't going to say anything and stood up, stretching her arms as far up as she could. "Okay so don't say anything out loud okay? Let me handle my dad."

' _Alright.'_

Rolling her shoulders she started the process of transforming back into her own body. It was a fairly automatic one, she just sorta asserted herself on the body and it changed back, but it took a little while to complete. When it was done she left her room, closing it behind herself and walked downstairs where her father was busy making himself something to eat. Tall, skinny and dark-haired with some balding on it he somehow managed to be the spokesman for the restoring the Docks of their decaying city back to their original state. She only seemed to have inherited the skinny and tall parts of it, the confidence he had eluding her. Looking up he smiled and set a plate of scrambled eggs to the side. "Glad to see you're awake Taylor, I just finished making us some breakfast."

With a nod she took the offered plate, placing it on the kitchen table just to the side but remained standing as he took his own seat. She needed to be careful with how she presented this to him, so he could take it in all at once and wouldn't get upset. Even if she had powers he was still her dad and it'd be easier on her if he supported her. "You uh remember Armsmaster coming into the hospital right?"

Stopping his first bite of his food he looked up at her, frowning slightly, probably at the fact she had been forced to go to the hospital in the first place. "Of course I do, why? Are you worried he's not going to find the people responsible?"

"No, not that. Rather it's the fact of what he actually showed up for." She half-whispered one hand going up to her arm to grip it nervously.

His frown grew and he set the fork down. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing it's just… don't panic or anything let me explain first okay?" She said, a nervous grin on her face. He only frowned more but nodded an okay regardless. Taking a deep breath in she folded her hands together, closed her eyes and focused on Asriel's form, willing herself to take his shape. When she actually paid attention, the transformation process felt kinda weird, every part of her body changed and she could actually feel it, even if she wasn't entirely sure what she was feeling. She could feel the obvious stuff, of fur sprouting from her skin and of getting shorter, but then there was a feeling inside her, as if her organs themselves were changing. And deeper still, something she had only learned to feel with her practice with magic, she could feel her soul itself change, but how she had no idea, and even Asriel wasn't sure what was going on there.

She could hear his shallow breathing, like that of a person who couldn't believe what they were seeing and when she opened her eyes she could see him staring, mouth agape, pale now. Suddenly she felt more conscious about how they looked, not really having paid that much attention before. Shorter by about a whole foot and a half, white fur covering every inch of her body, claws replacing her fingers, her clothes turning into children's clothes, little nubs on the back of her head which she was sure were horns. For him to see her change into this, it had to be a unique experience. "Y-you're a-a parahuman… si-since when?"

"Since I managed to break out of the locker at school." She managed to get out, lifting one hand up and summoning a current of fire into her palm, letting it flicker as silently as he was watching. "Armsmaster said that when they found me, my locker was blasted off its hinges, that hinted at me

having powers. So he offered me a spot on the Wards to learn how to use my powers right."

"Join the Wards? You mean fighting the gangs and freaks around here?" He asked, one hand going up to run over his hair.

Whipping her hand free of the flame she scratched her arm, but kept looking at him, feeling that if she looked away she might not have the will to look back. "Yeah but I'll be helping others, getting rid of the criminals infesting the Docks, saving people, learning how to handle my powers, being a hero."

He sighed and looked at her with a tired smile. "You've been thinking about this since the hospital haven't you?" She nodded and he shook his head, standing up and pushing his chair in then walking over to her. It really put it into perspective how short she was now as he walked up to her, her face being about even with his belly. He rectified that by dropping down to a knee so her face was a little above his and wrapped his arms around her neck in a hug. "Then I'll help my little hero however I can."

Blushing she returned the hug, resting her chin on his head. "Please don't talk like that, I'm sixteen dad."

"You look like a kid again, albeit a goat kid thing, so excuse me if I make a joke out of it." He said squeezing her as he said that before letting go and leaning back slightly to look at her. "Why are you wearing a striped shirt though?"

Chuckling she scratched the back of her head, half-wondering that herself, something to ask Asriel later."It's part of the transformation I guess."

' _It's kinda complicated, would take a bit to explain.'_ Asriel commented in her mind.

' _We'll have plenty of time on the way there.'_

Still smiling he asked, "So when are you planning on going to the Wards?"

"Well I was going to call Armsmaster and see what we have to do to join first." She said, stepping back from him and starting the transformation back to normal, Danny staring for a moment before shaking his head with a smile.

"Oh what would your mother say about our child being a hero." He asked himself, going back to his seat to finish his breakfast. "Before we go though you're going to finish your breakfast."

Nodding she joined him at the table and started eating, not sure of what else to say. He didn't either it seemed as a minute passed with them eating in silence, it only being broken as she stood up and took her plate to the sink. "I'm going to call him okay?" He nodded and she left to get the house phone.

Pulling Armsmaster's card out of her pocket she dialed the number, and he picked it up in the middle of the second ring. "This is Armsmaster here, who is this?"

"Um Taylor Herbert, I made my decision."

"That's good to hear Taylor, I trust you're doing better?" He asked.

"Yeah. So uh how do I join the Wards?"

He took a moment to respond, a grunt sounding from his end. "Well does your father know?"

"Yeah." She nodded even though he couldn't see her.

"Well bring him to the PRT and I'll tell some of our officers to expect you two and we'll go over the particulars there okay?"

"Sure, uh today?"

"If that's best for you then yes."

"I'll see you in a bit then?"

"See you soon Taylor." With that he hung up and she hung the phone back up on its stand. "So dad we just need to go the PRT building and then they'll help me sign up with the Wards."

He yelled back from in the kitchen, accompanied by the sound of the sink running as he washed the dishes. "When?"

"Whenever we're ready." She yelled back, sliding the card back into her pocket.

"Want to do it now then?"

"I'll go wait by the car okay?" Walking to the front door she grabbed her shoes and slipped them on, followed by her grey hoodie to keep the slight coolness of the air from bothering her. With those on she opened the door and walked down the steps, skipping over the last step like she always did. The streets were empty of people even though it was eight in the morning, the sun rising over the tops of the skyscrapers in the distance. Shielding her eyes from the sun she walked over to the car, standing beside it and waiting for Danny to come out.

It was as good a time as any to ask Asriel some questions she had while she was waiting. ' _So why do we always change clothes when we transform?'_

He began in a lecturing tone of voice, as if he was reading from a textbook. ' _A monster's body isn't really static. While it doesn't usually change much across their life, if the monster goes through something life changing it could very well change to reflect it, and some of the greater magicians can even willingly change their form. As for why mine is wearing the clothes it does, well, those were my favorite.'_ He ended shyly.

' _So later on we could change how we look then?'_ She asked, waving to her dad as he came out of their house and locked it.

' _Maybe. Would take a lot of work though, as I said only the greater magicians could pull it off. Forms more familiar with us would probably be easier to start with.'_

Danny walked up next to her and unlocked the car, and she slide into her seat, looking out the window as he turned it on and started backing up out of the driveway. ' _Well we can train to get stronger right? How long would it take us to get as strong as these great magicians?'_

' _We are already as strong, if not stronger. Human Souls are extremely powerful. But the problem isn't in power, but skill. I really have no idea how long it would take to learn it. You are picking up magic really fast, but shape-shifting is kinda on another level. I might be able to pull it off, I could before we fused, but I'm not sure. Our magic is different from what I had before.'_

"Alright and to PRT we go for my daughter to be a hero… I'm still expecting to wake up any second to be perfectly honest." Her dad muttered as he shifted into drive and started driving.

"That's what I expected the first day too." Going back to her mind she replied, ' _Well we should check later then, I want to see what I can expect to do later in my life. Maybe you can show off again.'_

He giggled a bit. ' _Yeah, it would be fun to see what I can still do. I wonder if I can still do shortcuts…'_ He trailed off.

 _Do what?'_ She asked, waving a jogger who was walking their dog.

' _Oh, shortcuts. They are a really advanced form of magic, only Sans could use them. Basically teleportation, linking two points of space and taking the shorter path between them as a "short cut".'_

Arching her eyebrows she smiled a little. ' _That sounds cool we could really use later on. Uh who's Sans?'_

' _A skeleton who use to live in Snowdin. He was a member of the Bureau of Time and Space who came here to investigate a temporal anomaly, but his time machine broke down so he is stuck there with his brother.'_

She wasn't sure if it was easier to believe that the voice was somebody else and they were talking about time travel so naturally or if she just had active of an imagination. A skeleton timecop was something unique. ' _I'm sorry did you say something about time travel?_

' _Yeah? I could do it to until- um, recently.'_

 _You were a flower right? So there's time travelling skeletons and flowers?'_ She was actually starting to hope somebody else was in her head now.

' _Oh, Sans can't time-travel anymore. His machine broke, leaving him stranded.'_

' _So just a time travelling flower then.'_ Who was in her head and gave her powers… wait a second. Suddenly a bit more alert she sat up. ' _Can we time travel too? Or is our magic too weird for you?'_

' _I don't think we can. I can't feel our DETERMINATION, or at least tell what is DETERMINATION and what's magic. And the only way to figure it out would be to, um, die.'_

' _Come again, I think you just said we had to die to find out?'_

' _Well, that's the only way I know of. In your final moments, as you leave this world, a burning DETERMINATION to live would hopefully well up inside you, and reset the world to when you first gained DETERMINATION. I wouldn't really suggest trying it out.'_

' _Yeah you don't need to worry about me trying to find that out.'_ Didn't even sound true anyways, dying to use time travel, nor would she like that in any way. ' _So why did you put emphasis on determination?'_

' _DETERMINATION is a power inherent in human souls, it's what allows the soul to survive past the death of it's body for a time. Monsters normally don't have much DETERMINATION at all, their souls crumbling to dust alongside their body. Boss Monsters are kinda a exception, they possess enough DETERMINATION to last a few seconds after their body turns to dust. There have only been two beings with enough DETERMINATION as to control time that I know of though, one of which was me.'_

Sounded like a videogame with how he was talking about Boss Monsters. But time travel sounded interesting, even if it was only useable through dying, it could still be something they could do when the worst came to pass. One was in her head and the other was… well completely unknown. ' _So who's the second with that power?'_

' _I, um, don't know. Only read about them in a book.'_ He said hastily.

Narrowing her eyes she looked into the side-view mirror, her own piercing gaze being reflected in it. It was evident that he had some idea who the other person was but didn't want to talk about it. ' _Why don't you want to tell me? Were they a bad person or something?'_

' _No no, they saved everyone… even me. I just… don't want to talk about it.'_

That brought up some mental flags. So the other person saved him and everyone else, he didn't want to talk about it, he'd been a flower before he, in his own words, tricked her. He always kept talking about how worthless he was, kept quiet about his past as much as he could but when he did say things they often weren't good. He said he hadn't been a nice person as a flower, hinted at bad things happening in the past, had trouble knowing his own age and said it was hard to keep track of time, and she now knew he time travelled, only when he died. All together it didn't paint a very good picture of him. ' _You really like the idea of being a hero, is there any particular reason why?'_

' _I'd like to help people, and actually do good again.'_

A vague answer that only hinted at not being a good person in the past. ' _We can either talk about this now and get it out of the way Asriel or we can do it later after we get used to one another.'_

' _I-'_ He began, before sighing. ' _I guess you deserve to know. First, I should probably explain what the Underground is. Was.'_

' _A long time ago, Monsters and Humans both lived on the Surface. But when it was discovered that Monsters could take a Humans soul, they grew fearful and hateful. They planned a surprise attack, and amassed their strength till they descended upon us in one fell swoop. Countless monsters were killed that day, and not a single human life was lost. Those who survived, were banished into the Underground, and the seven greatest magicians of humankind used all their strength to create The Barrier, to forever seal us down there. The Barrier was nigh-indestructible, anything can pass through it to enter the Underground, but nothing could leave. The only way to ever destroy it, would be through the amassed power of seven more human souls, but since no human would ever come to the Underground, it was thought to be hopeless, and that all of monsterkind would be forever more stuck down there. This was all thousands of years before I was born.'_

Feeling as if the story was going to be long she laid her head against the window and closed her eyes, letting the story go on. This was going to be the most information she'd gotten from him yet.

 _And now, me. I was born to Asgore and Toriel Dreemur, King and Queen of monster kind since they were banished to the Underground. Eight years later, as I was playing in the Ruins, I heard a cry of distress. When I went to see who it was, I found a human, Chara, who fell down a hole and hurt themselves. I helped her back Home, and mom healed her up. Over the next months, we became best friends as she became a part of our family._

 _One day though, she got an idea, and convinced me to help her with it. We overheard that while it's only possible to destroy The Barrier with the combined power of Seven Human Souls, it is possible to pass through it with the combined power of a Boss Monster Soul and a Human Soul. She started eating Buttercups, and when she became too ill to get them herself she had me get them for her. After a week of being bedridden, she finally died, and I absorbed her soul. That came with a surprise though, Chara was alive, and was now in my body with me. She picked up her body, and together we crossed through the barrier to her old village. Once there though, when the Humans saw me with the body, they assumed I killed her. They attacked me. Chara urged me to unleash my power, to level the town and take their souls so we could free our family, but I was a coward. I betrayed her, I held back our power because I couldn't stand the thought of killing someone. She begged me, begged that I didn't let her die again, that I wouldn't let her have died for nothing, but I couldn't. I just carried the body back home, and collapsed in the Royal Gardens before my parents, and died._

Frowning she realized why he had been so reluctant earlier to not say anything, because this story had gone from some slightly sad and sweet to something dark. Also explained why he knew how Monster souls and Human souls interacted.

 _Several years later, I woke up. I was a flower. I later learned that it was because of an experiment on Alphys's part trying to create a artificial soul via DETERMINATION injections, using the flowers that grew from seeds that were stuck to me when I died. But right then, I had no idea what happened._

 _I was so scared. I couldn't feel my arms or my legs... My entire body had turned into a flower! Eventually, Dad found me, crying in the garden. I explained what had happened to him. Then he held me. He held me with tears in his eyes, saying... "There, there. Everything is going to be alright." He was so... Emotional. But... For some reason... I didn't feel anything at all._

Forget dark this turned more into a horror story at this point. It idly reminded her of her experience in the locker but even worse than her experience.

 _I soon realized I didn't feel ANYTHING about ANYONE. My compassion had disappeared! And believe me, it's not like I wasn't trying. I wasted weeks with him, vainly hoping I would feel something. But it became too much for me. I ran away from home. Eventually, I reached the RUINS. Inside I found Toriel. I thought of all people, SHE could make me feel whole again. ... She failed. Ha ha…_

 _I became despondent. I just wanted to love someone. I just wanted to care about someone. I decided... It wasn't worth living anymore. Not in a world without love. So... I decided I would erase myself from existence. And you know what? I succeeded._

 _But as I left this mortal coil... I started to feel apprehensive. If you don't have a SOUL, what happens when you...? Something primal started to burn inside me. "No," I thought. "I don't want to die!" ... Then I woke up. Like it was all just a bad dream. I was back at the garden. Back at my "save point."_

There was the point where he knew that dying would result in time travel as he had put it and the way he found out was even worse than she expected. To kill himself then come back to life, afraid of what waited on the other side… it made her shiver.

 _Interested, I decided to experiment. Again and again, I brought myself to the edge of death. At any point, I could have let this world continue on without me. But as long as I was determined to live... I could go back. I was amazed._

 _At first, I used my powers for good. I became "friends" with everyone. I solved all their problems flawlessly. Their companionship was amusing... For a while. As time repeated, people proved themselves predictable. What would this person say if I gave them this? What would they do if I said this to them? Once you know the answer, that's it. That's all they are._

 _It all started because I was curious. Curious what would happen if I killed them. "I don't like this," I told myself. "I'm just doing this because I HAVE to know what happens." So I killed them, in dozens of different ways._

Paling she opened her eyes and sat up straight, taking the opportunity to look down at her hands. Which was inhabited by a homicidal kid now.

 _Eventually, they showed up and put to a stop to all that. Frisk. They somehow had DETERMINATION that eclipsed my own, I couldn't load my saves anymore. But since they were something new, I didn't take any immediate action, and just watched them. Watched their journey through the underground, watched as they not only evaded the attacks of every monster they crossed paths with, but befriended them. Befriended the people actively trying to kill them. Every single one. And when they got to the end, and beat Asgore, I made my move. I killed the king and destroyed his soul to deny it from Frisk, and took the 6 human souls, and used their DETERMINATION to bolter mine and regain control of the Time-line. And then I killed them, dozens of times over, but they persisted, and they somehow convinced the souls to revolt against me. And I was left powerless._

He killed his own parents… shaking her head in disbelief she kept listening in a silent stupor.

 _Yet despite all that I have done, despite my threats to kill all that they loved, they spared me. I could not understand. So I made a deal with them, they were to try again, and look under The Lab, to find the True Lab, and all the secrets Alphys kept locked down there, including what she did to create me. And after she did that, and I arranged for all the monsters they befriended to come to New Home, and "save" her from me. Once they all arrived, I took their souls too. I became a god, I had the combined power of all the monsters in the underground, as well as the DETERMINATION of 6 human souls._

 _I became_ _ **ME**_ _again. I felt emotions for the first time in forever. I could not let them leave, I didn't want to be alone again. I foolishly thought she was Chara, simply because they looked alike, and I could not stand losing my best friend again. So I did what I felt I had to do, I killed them a dozen of times more, willing them to give up, to just let me win. But they kept coming back, they reached out to the souls inside of me, and used their DETERMINATION to SAVE them. And then, They SAVED me. They did it, again and again. I couldn't take it anymore, I broke down. I cried, begged them to just let me win. They didn't. When they somehow survived my greatest attack, I ceeded. They won, and I kept my promise, I used the combined might of all the Human and Monster souls, and erased The Barrier, I let them go free._

 _And I was going to stay behind in The Ruins, letting them live their life, not worrying about me. For even though I became me again, I would not last forever. Without a Soul, I would become Flowey again, and I only hoped I would let them live their lives happily when I was. But as I felt the coldness set in, as I lost the ability to feel Love, I grew scared. I decided that I had to put my DETERMINATION to good use. I reached across reality, and I heard a cry for help. You. I tricked you into taking me into you, not telling you who I was, manipulating your feelings and state of mind to make sure you agreed. I'm sorry.'_

She stayed silent for a few moments, not sure of exactly what to say. He had suffered in so many ways that she couldn't imagine and he had hurt and killed others in just as many if not more ways, including his own family, using her as an escape from it all. It did explain why he was so reluctant to make himself more of a presence in her mind, but that was a good thing now that she knew wasn't it? Wrapping her arms around herself she replied, ' _I'm sorry for asking… let's just not bring this up again and forget it.'_

' _Alright.'_ He said in a small voice.

"Are you okay Taylor? You're pale." Her dad asked, snapping her out of her thoughts regarding the serious mental issue inside her head. Looking up and actually paying attention she saw that they were parked right outside the Downtown Protectorate HQ, the exterior was all windows, reflective enough to mirror the mottled dark gray of the sky overhead. Only a shield logo bearing the letters 'P.R.T.' marked it apart from the other buildings of downtown Brockton Bay, other than the parking lot in which they were in full of cars and people, a crowd of kids filing into the entrance. "I'm sure they'll understand if you want to wait a few more days."

She shook her head. "No I was just thinking to myself about some things. I'm ready to go in." He smiled at her and turned off the car, following suit she did notice for herself how she'd gone more pale. It wasn't from the fact she was about to walk into the headquarters of the local superhero team, where there would be people waiting to evaluate her and see if she'd join their ranks.

No she was more worried about the murderous child that was inside her head, or failing that, the fact she had a mental break and made up a story as horrible as that. The powers she'd be using to try and save people's lives would be the same exact powers that, for lack of a better term, her predecessor used to kill, one who would be watching her every movement through her own eyes. Steeling herself and clenching her hands into fists she forced a smile to her dad as he waited on the curb up to the PRT building. One thing at a time, she thought to herself as she begun walking to the front door, today she'd handle whatever tests and paperwork they gave her.

Tomorrow she'd deal with the serial murderer that took up residence in her mind.


	5. Tested Morals

CWN: Dear Anonymous Guest who was driven off by a wrong impression derived from the info-dump. Firstly, if you made an account and commented with it, replies could be made to you directly, rather than you having to wait for the update to read it here. Second, the True Pacifist route is only one possible way to play the game, and the widely considered "canon" route. If you wish, you could kill every single person you meet in the underground. And once you reach the end you can restart the game. And no-one would remember what you did, not even Flowey. So bare in mind that Flowey might not be in possession of all the facts. He simply told the story as he remembered it.

AN: The above is my co-writer who really wanted to say something and couldn't get me to pm the anon., hope you all enjoy the longest chapter I've ever written!

The room they were waiting in for Armsmaster, was very... white. The walls were white with no decorations other than the lights on it, the white desk lining the wall with a few yellow and red flowers resting on top of it. The table that Taylor had her elbows propped on was white too, with nothing on it, the only other non white objects being the black rolling chairs they sat on. They have been waiting for at least ten minutes, and Asriel hasn't made a peep since he told her his story. She was considering saying something to break the silence when Armsmaster finally walked in, a stack of papers clutched to his side. "Sorry for the wait, I was busy typing something up." He looked at her. "I trust that you told him?"

"Earlier today." She said, sitting upright in her chair. He nodded and stood across the table from the two of them, putting the paperwork on it.

"That makes this easier then, what I have here is some paperwork that I need your father to sign." He said, sliding half of said papers over the top of the table to her dad along with a pen that she didn't see. "This will detail her trust fund, insurance in case of the worse, organizations like the Youth Guard in case you're unhappy with something that we've outlined and the officials in charge don't or can't fix it. Also some good news for Taylor regarding her bullying problem." He paused to give her a small, tight smile. "It's customary for most Ward members to transfer to Arcadia High, meaning you won't have to deal with them anymore."

That brought a smile to her face, and her dad likely as he one arm hugged her, saying, "That's great!" He paused before adding on with venom in his voice. "They're still getting a punishment though right?"

"One has been transferred and the other two have been suspended and aren't allowed to go to any school functions anytime soon. "

He smiled, the venom gone from his voice. "I'm just glad it's all over and done with."

"Good then." He slid the other half of the papers towards her with another pen that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. "These papers are for you to detail what powers you have, think you have or any applications you can think of. I'm assuming you've practiced with it at times?"

"I have actually."

"Alright just fill out the parts you can and ask me for help with what you can't and the same for you Mr. Herbert regarding any questions that aren't addressed on those papers." Her dad nodded, already a good portion into his stack of papers, eyes roaming the words on the pages.

Looking at hers she flipped through them really quick to get a general idea of what it all was. Each page seemed to be for a specific classification of powers, minus the first page that was just a brief overview of what she could and think she could do. Deciding to fill that out first she went over what she knew she could do thanks to her practicing. She could make ethereal projections, shoot fire and changed forms, nothing too over the top compared to some of the heroes and villains but it was cool. Flipping to the other pages she read the definitions for each and started writing out in more detail what she could do.

She was finished before Danny was, who had only now started to write in his packet, which made sense since his had all the legal things in it, compared to hers that just asked a few simple questions. "Uh finished it."

Armsmaster held out a hand and she passed the papers back to him and he read through it. "Okay so Blaster and Breaker then?" He flipped it closed and looked at her dad for a moment. "If you both will follow me, I will show you both to the testing area. I will be available to help you with the paperwork while your daughter completes the tests." He went to the door and held it open, waiting for the both of them. When they came up beside him, he continued on through and talked over his shoulder. "Since you have an alternate form we'll run you through some other tests to see if you have any other abilities you haven't tested or thought about yet."

"Alright." Following after him she let her eyes wander the grey walls and down the corridor to where the PRT officers were standing guard who each were wearing chain mesh and kevlar vests, helmets that covered their faces, and firearms at their sides along with a grenade launcher that each held, with special non-lethal ammunition for any dangerous parahumans that might attack the PRT HQ. Following him through the halls they came to a metal door, made out of interlocking metal panels that unfolded in front of them and closed behind them as they went into it.

Armsmaster pressed one of the buttons, making her realize that this was an elevator, and crossed his arms. "Everything making sense in the documents Mr. Herbert?"

Her dad nodded. "Just the fact that there's a lot of it is the problem."

"One of the few things I will say is annoying about this job." The elevator's door unfolded again to reveal a huge room filled with devices, some only up to her knees, others towering over her head and almost to the ceiling. One looked like a metal claw reaching up out of the ground, four curving metal pillars reaching up into a point with a series of displays beside it. Then even more devices were put on top of a series of tables lining the left side of the room with one dark-skinned man sitting at one of said tables, his suit draped over one of the chairs to his side and headphones clamped over top of his ears. "This room here is where we perform body scans and Mr. Drake, the man over there, is our technician for these machines. You can go take the paperwork over to the tables if you want Mr. Herbert."

Danny nodded and followed Armsmaster as he marched to Drake over in his corner, she slowly walking after but staring at all the various machinery in the room. She was only halfway after them by the time Armsmaster tapped Drake on his shoulder, making him jump and whirl around towards him with a yelp. "Oh uh hey Armsmaster!" He peered around Armsmaster's large frame. "One of them's the new recruit right?"

"The girl to be exact, Breaker and Blaster, here's the papers." He gave Drake the stack of papers that she had finished earlier and nodded, walking past her dad without a word or a second look.

Flipping through it he walked over to the claw-like contraption and motioned her to follow after without looking and muttered to himself. "Okay… so you change into a goat to use your powers? That's a new one… shoot fire too. That's not a new one, alright." He flipped the pack of papers closed and finally looked at her as he stopped next to the machine, looking over his shoulder as he started flicking a seemingly random set of switches and turned some dials. "Sorry for not saying hi first, figured we could talk while running the tests."

"That's okay." She replied, watching as his hands continued to fly over the switches and displays, only half of his attention apparently on them. "So what's this one for then?"

"Ah this is for Breakers and Changers like yourself to see what properties they get or changes they've undergone beyond changing shape." He changed his attention to the monitors above the switchboard he was flicking switches on.

"Like what?"

"Some people change into mist, others into metal, some lose certain organs when in a different state. The list goes on and on for whatever types of changes that various forms can have. Now if you'll just step into the middle here for me?" He pointed at the platform that was in the middle of the four curved pillars.

Obliging she asked, "Should I change or…?"

"No just a second, we need to run it once before we do your shifted form. Get a basis for how your body should be beforehand, see if any past injuries or what not are still there afterwards." With that he flipped a final switch and the pillars all started to glow a bright green. "Just stay still and let this do its thing and I'll tell you when to change."

"Alright."

She stood still and waited for it to finish, the pillars becoming a very bright green, forcing her to blink a few times at the brightness. After a few seconds she heard Drake call out to Armsmaster from behind the pillars. "Armsmaster can you come here for a second? I may have not calibrated this right."

Blind to what was going on she had to listen closely to tell what was going on, hearing Armsmaster's boots hitting the ground before he spoke. "No this looks to be calibrated right…"

Calling out past the blinding pillars, curious as to what was going on. A little bit worried since this was a machine for testing superpowered people that might not be working right."What's wrong?"

A heartbeat passed. "Just a glitch with the system, nothing to worry about. It's fixed now, go ahead and switch to your other form." His boots clicked against the floor as he went back to her dad's side. With that she started the change to Asriel's form and kept waiting for Drake to finish the test, the minutes passing as she shifted and he kept testing.

"Not what I was expecting when you said it was a goat, but I see why you listed it as a goat. How exactly does it feel for you? Light, heavy, energetic, etc?" He asked, flicking another few switches.

"Uhhh fuzzy? Because of the fur really." She hadn't really focused on how the form itself felt, beyond the magic she needed to shift into it, that part being one of the most interesting parts of her power. Focusing on how it felt it actually felt as natural as her human body did, despite the fact she didn't have fur, claws or big ears before.

"I asked because I'm always curious as to how Breaker's forms feel. One thing to get powers, another to have a completely different body. I'd just like you to switch back and forth a couple of times, to get more data on the transition." Shrugging she did as he asked and shifted back.

"Now that I think about it, it feels entirely natural. Like I was born with it." She said, hooking her her thumbs into her pockets and rocking back and forth on her heels, half-way between Asriel and human.

"Good for you then, some Breakers don't feel as natural with their other forms. They actually have to think about how to move around lest they trip or whatever the equivalent their form does."

"Really?"

He laughed for a second. "Yeah there's one Breaker that I remember, not his name though, his form turned him into basically artillery. He couldn't move at all in that form, awesome firepower, had to set up for it though."

"Sounds like a horrible trade-off in my opinion."

"Well it's one of his forms, the other was some speedster form to make up for that one I suppose. I liked it enough that I remembered it from school. You just emit fire, don't breathe it like a dragon or anything?" Another series of button clicks and flicks from him on the console.

"I've only really tried anything from my hands but I don't see why I couldn't do it in some other way." Her fingers danced across her legs and she bit her lip, starting to get bored of waiting.

"That's something you can try for the Blaster test then, there's so many more uses if you're not limited to just your hands."

"Like what?" Only thing she could think of was maybe flying, but she wasn't too sure about trying to be a flying, flaming goat when she was still having trouble with what Asriel considered only marginally harder magic.

"Well depending on how your power works exactly I could see you using it to give yourself boosts of speed for kicking or punching. A blast of fire all around you if you get tied up or something, make it almost impossible to look at you, shield yourself in fire so nobody can get close." He explained almost giddily like she was a friend that he talked to all the time about powers. It would explain some of his interest in powers beyond it being his job. "Those types of things work really well with fire, but again like I said it depends on how your power works exactly. Some people's powers don't give them recoil, others are restricted to only one area of their body and the like. See what I mean?"

"Yeah I can see what you mean by that being useful." She finally finished changing back to human and started it back to Asriel's form.

"Feel free to ignore my question since it might do something to reveal your identity, but how long have you had your powers?" He asked with a bit of caution like she might be offended by the question.

"Uh…" He was a PRT official and had already seen her face but still the idea of helping to narrow down who she was, was a bit daunting.

He interrupted before she could make up her mind. "Like I said feel free to ignore it, I know how some people feel about identities and the like."

"No it's fine, I mean you've already seen my face so what's this going to do?" She shrugged to emphasize her point. "I got them about a week ago."

"So not much practice then. But for the identity thing I only saw your face, what's the chances I'll see you around the Bay outside of your form? Pretty small if you think about it really."

"I suppose so. So how's the analyzer thing working?"

"Soon as you're done changing back to goat this last time we'll be good and we can move on to the other tests."

She nodded, actually curious to see if she was stronger or could do something else like Drake was suggesting. "Are the other tests going to be me standing around?"

He laughed at that. "No the other tests will actually have you doing things. Well except maybe the heat resistance test which is just you putting your hand on a heat pad until it's uncomfortable. Every other test you'll be doing things so don't worry it won't get too boring."

Looking in his direction, but still squinting because of the bright pillars she questioned that. "A heat pad? For what?"

"Armsmaster will take you there while I read over the data from these tests. Make sure the glitch didn't corrupt any data and the like. The rest of the tests are more or less straight forward and the pad is since you shoot fire, you know see if you have fire or heat resistance."

"Ah." Was all she said to that, seeing why he would want to test that, see if she had heat resistance. Finally finishing her transformation into Asriel she asked, "So are we good then?"

The pillars started dimming as an answer. "Yeah. Armsmaster she's ready for the Brute tests!" He called out to Armsmaster. She blinked and rubbed at her eyes to rid herself of the spots in her eyes now that the pillars were no longer blinding her. Armsmaster's boots announced his presence before she could look again.

"Alright then if our hopefully new Ward member could follow me to the other testing room." She nodded, removing one hand from her eyes so she could look where she was going to be walking and ignored the dozens of spots in her eye. Following after him as he left the room he paused for a moment by the door. "I'll be back in a moment Mr. Herbert if you need any help."

"Okay." Danny replied, not looking up from his paperwork. Armsmaster didn't notice or didn't comment and went back into the elevator with her following him in, feeling small next to him in her Asriel form. With his armor adding to his already impressive height, in combination with the foot or so she lost turning into Asriel, it made it so she only reached to where his stomach would be. When he looked at her he had to peer down over his own nose at her, who was giving a sheepish smile to him.

The frown that appeared on his face banished her smile. "Your cape name wouldn't be Azriel would it?"

It took her a moment to comprehend the reason behind his frown and the question he asked. She or rather Asriel had only ever said that name once out loud and that had been to a criminal who Asriel listened to and shot gang colors all over the entire city. Which wasn't a good thing for her if she wanted to join the Wards. Wincing as she realized that fact she muttered, "Yes?"

"I'm sure you'll know what I refer to when I ask why you did what you did a couple days ago?" He clasped his arms behind his back, still looking down at her.

"Um… well…" She struggled to find an explanation that wouldn't include any mention of a sociopathic kid in her head. Normally she wouldn't have done so, it wouldn't do good to say she was out training and got confronted. She looked like a kid though right? And Drake had been talking about comparing the before and after of her transformation, maybe she was a kid physically too. "I'm more… gullible? Friendly? Something along those lines when I'm in this form I guess."

His frown lessened and he looked back at the elevator as it opened and stepped out. "You wouldn't be the first to have their mental state affected in a way, we'll just need to work with it then." She stepped through after him, a relieved smile on her face at the fact it didn't sound like she would be in any trouble. "Maybe have you talk to kids or guard duty."

"So am I in trouble?"

He glanced at her. "I'll talk to the director, worst I see happening to you would be the director having you perform community service. Nothing drastic." Pointing at the room that lay before them he changed the subject. "Here is where we test those that have Brute powers or in your case another form. First up will be the strength test, followed by durability and then heat resistance, you can go ahead and stay in that form."

She looked out over the room they were in, just as many high tech devices as what was in the other room, but most of them seeming to be like gym equipment, eyes settling on four metal stands with a single thick bar floating in the middle of it, that Armsmaster was walking towards. Following after she noticed the display on the front left of the four metal stands, the only difference between them all being that, with them all having blue circles on the inside of it, matching the color of the end of the thick silver bar floating in the middle of them. Armsmaster was already tapping the display on the front of the machine and setting it up for her by the time she she got near it. "So what's this?"

"Its to measure how strong a Brute is.. The bar will provide resistance and pressure for you to push against and allow us to measure how strong you are." He pressed one final button and took a step back. "Since we're just giving you the brief tests today and your father hasn't finished with the paperwork we're just going to do a few things to give us a good idea. If you do join we'll be going more in-depth with the rest of the machines."

More testing if she did join? She kept the sarcasm out of her voice at the idea, knowing that she'd have to go through all their tests if she wanted to join, not to mention it'd be good to know her limits. "Sounds fun."

"It's something everyone has to go through. First up will be a simple resistance test, just stand right behind it and I'll adjust it for your smaller size." Walking under it like he asked she looked up at the bar set a foot higher than she could even reach. A few more taps against the display he and reached around the display and gently pushed it down until it was level with her face. "Don't worry about the weight at first it'll feel like ten pounds. Just drape it across the back of your shoulders and we'll be ready."

"Alright." Reaching for the bar she lifted it up, barely feeling the weight of it, probably because she expected it to weigh more even if Armsmaster said it'd be light. Lifting it over her head she placed it on her shoulders and watched as he started tapping the display again. "So what's this?"

"To see how much weight you can handle it'll keep increasing the weight until you can't handle it anymore." He said matter of factly, staring down at the display.

That sounded interesting but she was more worried about the fact this was supposed to test people with super strength, which they weren't sure she had, and she couldn't see anything to keep it from slamming her into the ground. "What's to keep it from smushing me?"

"The moment you feel you can't handle it anymore just let go and all the downward force will stop. It's Tinker technology that I looked over myself so no need to worry about being squashed. Ready?" Gulping she nodded and he pressed the display one final time. The bar started to pull down into her shoulder, the weight becoming a bit more pronounced after a few seconds. He looked up at her. "Feeling fine?"

Smiling at that she shifted from foot to foot. "Yeah, glad you're taking it easy on me first."

"Mmmhmmm." He looked back down at the display. "I'm going to start ramping up now, just remember to stop pushing when you can't handle it." He pressed another button and the weight started to increase on her back, pulling down harder as time went on. At first it had felt like nothing, then a gentle reminder, now an insistent tug that was growing larger over time. She guessed it'd been about ten seconds before he pressed something else on the display and it practically tripled and caught her off guard for a second making her stumble. He gave her a concerned glance but she just smiled and fixed her footing, centering the bar on her back again.

Another ten seconds passed with the weight still mounting each moment, and he repeated the same process as before. When she didn't move he did it again making her grunt as she started to feel the burn in her legs and back. It made him pause for only a second then the weight went from a steady increase to a violent one, the weight pushing down on her more and more. Her knees buckled under her, muscles straining to keep her upright with the Tinker made more in grunts than actual speech she said, "I… think… this is… my… limit!"

He looked up at her from behind his visor. "Keep going until you can't if you want this to give you an accurate reading."

Managing only a grunt she kept her footing as he upped the weight again and it forced her down a

few inches. Gritting her teeth she pushed back up against it and it simply increased in weight again, too much for her to handle she let go with her hands and dropped down to a knee, the bar immediately gone from her shoulders the moment she stopped pushing up against it like he said. Draping her arms across her knees she looked up at him and asked panting, "I didn't… waste your… time did I?" She didn't expect any type of strength really, she never noticed anything when she was walking around or messing with her other magic.

Shaking his head he pressed a few more things on the display and the bar went back to its original position. "Just below ten metric tons."

Caught off-guard by that she stared at him with an agape mouth at the number he had just said. "What?" There was no way she heard him right, she shouldn't be able to handle ten tons.

"21,448 pounds to be exact. More than anybody would assume given your size and form." The corner of his mouth curved upwards in a small grin. "Would be a surprise to the first few criminals you come across. Anyways congratulations on discovering another power of yours, which makes me think the next test will be successful regarding your powers." He turned around but didn't walk to whatever machine it was that he was talking about. "You're not afraid of needles are you?"

Still panting she shook her head and pushed herself back up into a standing position to follow after him as he walked to the next test machine. Heading straight for a table he pulled out a chair for her and started fiddling with some open half-cylinder machine with a needle poking out of the very top, pointing down at the table where a series of straps were. Sitting down in the chair he had provided she looked at the needle that seemed ready to stab down. "Er what's this one for?"

"It works by slowly pressing the needle against the skin, measuring how much force it takes to puncture. It won't go any deeper than the skin, and will only feel like a pinch." He paused in his fiddling with the machine to strap her arm in underneath the needle. "In simpler terms it tests to see if you're tougher than you were before."

"You think I might have a power relating to that too?"

"Most people that have enhanced strength or the like also have some type of enhanced durability or some way of protecting their body from damage that they would otherwise get without another power." He tapped the side of the machine and the needle started to lower. "We'll just wait until it finally pierces your skin however long that is and I can get an idea for or if you have other powers."

With a nod she watched the needle lower itself to her skin and rest against it for a few seconds then start pushing it in but not actually piercing it. A good portion of the needle seemed to disappear as the fur covered it along with the fact her skin just kind of let itself be pushed inward. "So uh, when do we know it's pierced? Feels my blood or something?"

"The sensors should tell us if you don't say anything before it notices." He didn't add anything else and she didn't ask anymore and instead waited for the needle to pierce her skin. Maybe half a minute later it finally pierced through before pulling back out and she lifted the spot up to her eyes to look at it with a frown, wondering why it had taken so long.

"I'm guessing I have another power then?"

He didn't answer and instead muttered to himself and stared at the screen. "...Fourteen thousand… add that to…" Straightening up he started unstrapping her. "I was right regarding the idea of you having another power. The amount of force needed to pierce your skin is high enough that most models of handguns are completely ineffective against you." Again her mouth went agape at the idea of the news he was giving her. "We'll have to test more later to see if it affects every part of your body. Final test before we move onto your ability to use fire is going to be a heating pad. I'll be right back with it." He turned around and started walking to the cabinets that were situated by the elevator's entrance, leaving her alone to her thoughts for a minute.

She was strong enough to handle almost ten tons as her limit, could handle most handguns and maybe a few other guns, shot fire from her hands and could make the equivalent of holograms whenever and wherever she wanted. They could be decoys with practice while she could beat down most criminals she could think of. Maybe she could even fly with enough practice with her powers. This was all so awesome, just a week ago she'd been completely helpless and here she was with so much power at her fingertips, it was exhilarating. Clenching her claws into fists she smiled and whispered to herself, "This is awesome."

' _Yeah, human souls are really powerful.'_ She heard Asriel say in a small voice.

Right she forgot about him with all the tests going on, she was surprised he was talking though. He seemed a bit upset after his story. Rubbing her fingers together she looked up at Armsmaster's back as he was digging through one of the cabinets."Are all human souls the same or what's the rule with them?"

' _Well, human souls vary between person and person, of course. But all of them are really strong compared to Monster Souls. Even yours, which, while being weaker than any other six souls I have dealt with, is still at least as strong as my Dad's.'_

Armsmaster finally fished out the heating pad that he had been looking for and started walking back towards her, cutting her short of any questions she was going to ask regarding souls. She could ask him but that might drown out whatever Armsmaster might be saying regarding her powers or procedures, but she'd remember to ask later. The more information on her powers the better. She just gave thumbs up to herself, which was just as much directed to Asriel, as she turned back around and folded her arms on the table.

He walked into the corner of her eye and put the small heating pad on the table, the kind that one could buy from a drugstore, blue clothed and the white cable held in his hand. Taking it into her hands she looked it over and saw absolutely nothing special about it then put it back down on the table with her hand under it. "This looks like a normal heating pad."

"Because it is. We're not sure if you have heat resistance so it wouldn't do for us to start off by trying to burn you. Just tell me when it gets uncomfortable for you." He stated pressing the button on the control in his hand.

"Uncomfortable or painful?" Those were two very distinct things, that she wasn't clear on which to do.

"Uncomfortable, we're trying to see if you're above human standards so if you kept going until it hurts you'd ruin the test. And hurt yourself." Nodding once again she just waited for the pad to heat up, which didn't take long. It didn't take much longer for it to feel a bit too hot for her to handle and she removed her arm. "Well that's a no to heat resistance then, maybe it only works with your fire." He took the heating pad and started wrapping it back up and jerked his head to the elevator. "Last test for today will be regarding your fire, since the other tests will take a while to perform and you're still not a official member. When you do join we'll perform the rest."

"What's this one going to have me do?" She asked sliding of out the chair and following after him. "Try to melt something? See how long I can do it or the like?"

"A few things along those lines yes." She had to jog after him into the elevator because of his long-legged gait. They rode in the elevator once more and down to another room, this one a long hall-like room, at least a few hundred feet, with a featureless wall at the end. Stepping out and looking to either side she saw displays on either side of the wall, lockers alongside the elevator's door, sprinklers lining the ceiling and several things sticking out of the ceiling. Again Armsmaster made a beeline for one of the displays again and she jogged after him. "First I want to see how your fire manipulation power works so I can set this up accordingly."

Holding out her hand she summoned a small ball of fire and rolled it around in her palm. "Like this or put more effort into it?"

"That works as a basis, now show me your full effort." Nodding she held out a hand down the hall and started to gather magic power in mass, more than she has before. She gathered and twisted it in her paw, making the ball of magic bigger and bigger. However, her focus slipped from the ball for a moment, and a cracked formed in its surface. She quickly rushed to seal it, but in doing so allowed several more to form. It was visible, with beams of light beginning to arc out of the ball of white fire within her hand, and she felt panic wash over her as she realized she bit off more than she could chew. Before it could explode though, a presence seemed to step in and hastily adjusted the sphere, sealing all the cracks and sending it flying off down range. It flew all the way to the end until it hit the wall and detonated with a resounding boom which she could feel all the way on the opposite side of the room.

"The fuck was that?" She breathed in surprise.

"You need to be more careful!" Azzy reprimanded in a worried tone. "You're still new to magic, don't go grabbing huge amounts at once yet! And especially don't morph it into any Attack Magics unless you are sure you can handle it! If that went off, you could have died!"

"Well I didn't know, you never said anything about too much at once!"

"Don't you remember what happened when you first reached for your magic? You couldn't control it, and it exploded everywhere. Of course the same would happen with Attack Magic!" He yelled back, and she felt tears begin to gather in her eyes.

"Fuck!" Was all she said in response, her hands going up so wipe away the tears that were starting to fall. Of course it'd be the same as with the other magic and she wouldn't think of that. "Shit I'm sorry."

"Just please be more careful next time." He sniffled. "I don't want you getting hurt."

Rubbing away the tears she sighed. Twice that murderous thing had saved her life now, this time from her own stupidity. If it weren't for him she would have blown herself up and Armsma- They'd been using her mouth. They'd been talking out loud to themselves right next to Armsmaster. Jerking her head up and away from the hand covering her eyes she could see his piercing gaze boring into her and that almost disappointed frown of his. "I just said that out loud didn't I?"

He gave a curt nod to her, still frowning. "Yes you did. What was that about?"

Wincing even though he hadn't said anything she struggled to find a way to explain it, without mentioning the voice in her head. She'd just been arguing with herself and she was positive that everything they said had been out loud for him to hear. Telling him about the voice would make her sound insane and unfit to join their team, but there wasn't a way to talk her way out of this without sounding insane. Sagging her shoulders and looking down at the floor she told him the truth. "I uh… since I got my powers I've had a voice in my head. He was the one who shot off those gang colors because he didn't know better. In fact the only reason I know how to use my powers is because he's been telling me how to and if it weren't for him I would have just blown us both up." She finished, tucking her arms up against her chest and not looking up at Armsmaster.

She couldn't see his face change if it did from the earlier frown, only able to see his boots which stayed still. "And the reason you didn't mention any of this is…?" He trailed off for her to answer.

"Because I thought it might keep me from joining. Somebody with a voice in their head isn't exactly the most reliable person to have on your team." She answered.

"We have members with almost every type of ailment, we simply adjust their duties in accordance. It wouldn't be any different for you." Surprised she looked back up at him when he said that it didn't matter, his hand grasping the bottom of his chin as he thought. "Just some more often visits with the psychiatrist than the other Wards, keep you away from those with Master powers and that's it."

"That's it really?" She asked with a hopeful smile.

Glancing down at her, he turned around to press something on the display then turned back to her. "We'll have to run you through some psych evaluations, maybe some medication." Her smile fell into a small frown. He shook his head and added, "I'm not entirely sure, I am not the best when it comes to the workings of the mind."

"Okay then." She muttered.

"We'll go back to see how your father is doing with the paperwork, come back to the rest of the tests at a later date. I can make do with the data you've provided thus far." He waved her on to follow him and she trudged after him, entering the elevator a full ten seconds after he did. She kept her gaze to the ground the whole time, feeling her eyes getting wet again. Brushing at them she stepped into the elevator and waited for it to open again.

"You're not going to tell my dad are you?" He looked down at her as his finger hovered above the button.

"I didn't tell him about us suspecting you have powers, so there's no reason for me to tell him about anything else." He pressed the button and folded his arms. "But I will recommend that you tell him."

The door opened back up to the Changer testing room and he stepped through without another word, leaving her behind. Slowly she followed after, thinking about how this would all be even more difficult than she had originally imagined, now that they knew about Asriel inside her head. Thankfully not including what he'd told her. Her dad talking snapped her out of her daze. "So you're comparing her to Jello?"

Drake shook his head, still staring at the displays from the first machine, not a glance in their direction. "It's the best way I can think of describing it without going into techno-babble. Except instead of part liquid and part solid, she's made out of some exotic semi-solid matter, I can't find anything in her resembling an organ even. It's… just there." Were they talking about her?

Armsmaster seemed to assume that as he looked over Drake's shoulder and asked, "Figured something out about our new recruit?"

Drake stepped to the side so Armsmaster could get a better look and with a smile he shook his head, looking towards her as she came to a stop behind them. "Some type of energy I've never seen before is holding together matter I've also never seen before in a semi-solid state. Not a single organ in her entire body either, nor is there any evidence of there having been any previously. It's making me wonder how she can see, breathe and the like. That's the basic of what I could make sense of so far, her form was hard to analyze so the data's a bit harder to read than usual."

Armsmaster nodded and stepped back from the display. "So it'll take longer than your usual then?"

He shrugged. "Everybody knows how I am when it comes to something new, I'll stay up late and keep working until I figure it out, but like I said it's harder than usual. I'd say a few hours more than usual."

"Good." Armsmaster looked at her dad who was sitting down in one of the chairs with the paperwork folded in his hands. "Are you done Mr. Herbet?"

He frowned and stood up with a sigh. "I still don't like the idea of my daughter getting into danger." Handing the papers over he looked at her and smiled. "But if she wants to save lives, I'm not going to stop her." Armsmaster took the papers and shuffled through them as her dad narrowed his eyes and the smile lessened. "Is everything okay?"

"She made a small mistake during one of the tests, nothing major." Armsmaster answered for her, not bothering to look up as he flipped through the paperwork, earning a glance from her dad. "We'll just have to try it again after she joins the Wards… this all seems to be in order, just need your daughter to read a few pages and sign some of them."

"That's all?" She asked with a tilt of her head, her grip on her own arms lessening in a slight bit of puzzlement. A little bit of paperwork and testing and she was eligible to join the Wards, the superhero team for her city? It seemed like it was less than it would require for somebody to join.

"To join the Wards? No there's a ceremony for those that join along with more testing and rules you'll have to learn, along with learning to practice with your new teammates. But for the paperwork, yes that's it." He flipped to one of the pages in it and then handed it to her. "This page and the two behind it are the one's you'll need to read and sign."

Staring at the papers in her hands, not reading the words at first she thought about how these papers were the ones that would let her join the Wards, be a hero, be something more than nerd that was picked on. It would change her life and throw her into dangerous situations to try and save lives and put an end to all the crime in the Bay. All she needed to do was read and sign a few papers and her life would be changed. Something she needed desperately. "Do you have a pen?"

Armsmaster handed her one, took it with a thank you and walked over to where her dad was at the tables so she could write on it without tearing the papers. Putting them on the table she folded her arms under her chin and rested on the table, it being the perfect height for her current size to do, her dad scootching closer to her and watched with a smile. She gave a smile back, turned her attention to the papers and started reading the papers outlining, the possible dangers and the benefits, her rights and the things PRT could not make her do. Then she took the pen and signed at each part that asked her to do so, each signature being another step closer to being a hero.

Without a moment of hesitation she signed the final part and put the pencil down with a grin, already thinking about how she was going to be one of the heroes. Danny smiled to and wrapped an arm around her head and laughed. "Well that's it then, I'm going to see my daughter on the news taking down villains and saving lives."Laughing with him she tried to wrap her own arms around him, only managing to get either arm halfway across his stomach.

"If you two stay like that for too long I won't be able to show you your new base and teammates." Armsmaster stated, still not having moved from his earlier position.

She stopped laughing and pushed off her dad with an agape mouth at what she just thought he said. "I get to see the Wards?" He nodded and she clapped her hands together in excitement with a squeak of excitement. Then she realized what she just did and blushed, covering her mouth, eliciting even more laughter from her dad.

"Come along then, you can come too Mr. Herbert, it's not the first time a civilian would be in the Wards headquarters and I'm sure we can help to dissuade those fear regarding your daughter's safety." They both got up and begun to follow him to the elevator.

"Are we really going to meet some of the Wards?" Her dad asked as they filed into the elevator and Armsmaster pressed another button.

"Only three of them are here at the moment, Gallant, Vistan and Clockblocker. The others are out on patrol or enjoying time off at the moment." He stated as the doors opened to a long chrome-colored corridor a terminal next to the steel door at the end. Stepping out he continued as they both followed him down the corridor. "We figured that one of the best ways to help persuade new members was to introduce them to their team and base of operations." Reaching the end he leaned down slightly so that the terminal was level with his face and it scanned his eye. The door clicked and gears unseen started whirring as it opened up.

He strode through while she and her dad lagged behind slightly not know what to expect behind it. The room was a rough dome shape, some walls having lines in them as if they were meant to be re-arranged and interlocked in dozens of different ways, doors dotting at irregular intervals along the walls. At one end of the room was a large assortment of computers, monitors and cables, several monitors showing various parts of the city and people filing past. Her eyes were more so magnetized to the three individuals in the room, two of whom were who were by the computers and one who was standing in one of the doorways.

The first one she recognized because of the fact she didn't wear a full-covering mask, letting people see her creamy skin and brown hair, but even if she did wear a full-cover mask her small size of a child would have revealed who she was. Vista, the young heroine that could alter the dimensions of space between two points to walk across a street in a single step. She wore a simple blue t-shirt and white skirt, her signature green visor covering the upper part of her face, waving at her from her position in the seat.

Sitting beside her was a handsome looking lad with blonde hair, muscles evident under his white shirt and loose-fitting jeans. That attire clashed with the futuristic but still medieval-looking helmet that gleamed under the lights of the room, it marking him as Gallant, the man who could shoot concussive blasts of emotions to make criminals feel sad or ashamed for their crimes and always wore a suit of power armor out on duty. He gave her a peace sign from his seat on the table.

The last member that was present was another caucasian, with a joke shirt saying 'You say lazy, I say patient.' If his shirt wasn't able to make one figure out who he was the blank white mask would, marking him as Clockblocker, the Ward that could freeze any object in time for at least thirty seconds up to ten minutes.

Armsmaster gestured at the three assembled Ward members while she vibrated in barely contained excitement. "I'm sure you know them already but they don't know anything about you so why don't you introduce yourself?"

"Oh you've goat to be kidding me our newest member is going to be another kid?" She could practically hear the smile in Clockblocker's voice as he mockingly joked at her expense.

She snorted at that and Vista shook her head at that joke. "You're going to scare her off with your horrible jokes like that Clock." Standing up from her seat she walked across the room to greet Taylor with a handshake, both of them smiling at each other. "When Armsmaster told us to get ready for a new team member I didn't expect somebody younger than me."

Chuckling she took the offered hand and shook it, having to look up at the young heroine because her form was so short that her eyes were level with her shoulders. "Uh this is actually my alternate form, I'm actually sixteen." Vista's smile fell slightly and Clockblocker started laughing from his spot in the doorway, now walking towards her too.

"Well sorry buckaroo but it still looks like you're still the most junior member of the team." He clapped Vista on the back and she threw a glare at him, Gallant now approaching too. Clockblocker offered his own hand to shake, Vista taking a step back and out of the way. "Seriously though it's always good to see a new face around here."

Shaking his hand too she replied similarly. "It's awesome to be able to join." Pausing she cast a glance towards Armsmaster and her dad who was smiling content to just watch. "Well eventually join."

Gallant offered his hand next, his grip being a strong one. "I think we're all at a disadvantage with the fact that you know our names and we don't know yours."

"It's uh Asriel." She answered, using the voice's name because she didn't have any better ideas of a name. Gallant placed his hands on his hips.

"Azriel huh? I've never heard of that one before. So what's your powers?" Both Clockblocker and Vista leaned forward, probably wondering themselves as to what she could do.

Armsmaster answered again for her, in a different way than she would've. "She's a tentative Brute five, Blaster seven, Changer one. Ratings may change upon completion of the more extensive tests."

Gallant and Clockblocker seemed to be taken aback in surprise and Vista's eyes widened. Clockblocker was the first to respond with a dumb, "What?"

With a sheepish grin she rubbed the back of her head with her claws. "According to the test they ran I can lift ten metric tons, I'm immune to handguns and I have really powerful fireballs."

Vista looked at Armsmaster with a shocked look, a finger pointed at her incredulously. "She can lift ten tons? Really?"

He nodded. "Almost ten metric tons which is more than ten tons. We were unable to complete the Blaster tests so she might be higher or lower rated than what we have her as now."

Clockblocker shook his head with a laugh, half-turning away. "Our newest member is not only our new big hitter but is a four foot tall goat kid? I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing."

She laughed with him, the other two chuckling along with them. These three were the Wards, the people that saved lives and were basically junior police with superpowers, responsible for so much and here they were laughing at such a stupid thing. If it weren't for their masks she wouldn't have ever guessed they were heroes. "I hope it's a good thing."

"Maybe we can continue this at a later time." Armsmaster said, interrupting their laugher and making her crease her brows in confusion. "After all until you're sworn in, you're technically still a civilian in the Wards' base."

Sighing with disappointment she nodded and gave the Wards all a smile. "It was cool meeting all of you!"

They smiled in turn at her, each returning the same message in their own way. "I look forward to having a goat kid able to bench press trucks on my team." Clockblocker joked.

Vista rolled her eyes. "It'd be nice to not be the kid on the team anymore."

"Like Clockblocker said, you're still the kid. Maybe not publicly but you've gotta deal with that still Vista." Gallant joked, earning a laugh from Clockblocker, then he turned his attention to her. "Hope to see you around Azriel."

"See you guys later." She said with a wave, turning around to enter the elevator that her dad and Armsmaster were waiting in, skipping in elation. The doors closed and she waved bye to them, smile going from ear to ear.

"You should probably return back to your human form so nobody can connect you to your dad." Armsmaster commented before pushing the button to take them back up to ground level when she started turning back into human, growing in size slightly with each second. "We'll just wait in here until she's done turning back to normal and then I'll walk you two out the front door."

"Alright."It took a few minutes for her to turn back but when she did Armsmaster opened the door to reveal the main lobby bustling with the activity of tourists, superhero fans, PRT employees, more PRT guards to protect the station. Kids rushed in and out of the gift shop on the right with posters, action figures and clothing of the local heroes, and finally the tour guide at the front desk. Some of that activity died down as people realized that Armsmaster was there and they cleared the way for him as he walked through the crowd with a smile and a few waves, letting her dad and her past.

Holding open the door he raised a single hand to say goodbye. "I'll call your father back for an opportune time."

Her dad nodded and waved goodbye, the two of them heading down to their car and strapping themselves in. She reclined the seat slightly and leaned back against it with a happy sigh. "Tiring day for you huh?" Her dad asked.

"Yeah… I'm going to take a nap okay?" He nodded and started driving while she closed her eyes and let the day's events go through her mind. She'd met heroes, been inside the HQ, told about how powerful she really was… ' _Awesome.'_

A minute or two into the ride, her passenger spoke up. ' _Sorry about yelling at you in front of Armsmaster. I went and blew the secret.'_

Her breath hitched, again surprised at the voice, or rather Asriel. He remained so silent and quiet that it was easy to forget he was there, despite how much he'd changed her life. Sighing through her nostrils she crossed her arms. ' _We were both yelling out loud, so it's both our faults… not like it seems to have mattered anything to Armsmaster, we just need mental evaluation according to him. If I'm honest with myself, I need it.'_

' _Still, you said that you didn't want people to know about me, and if I didn't start the yelling he wouldn't have ever known.'_ He was silent for a moment, and when she was about to say something he continued. ' _I-if you want me gone, I'm fairly certain I can remove myself without getting rid of your new powers. Give you back your privacy, and you won't have to deal with me anymore. Normally it would be difficult, but Human souls are so strong, I'm sure I can do it.'_

That was not what she expected him to say. Not at all what she would have ever thought to hear him say after the story he told her. And it was what she had been thinking about prior to entering the PRT building, finding a way to get rid of the voice, whether it was a construct of her own mind or an actual separate being. But without it she didn't have much of an idea of how to use her powers, as evident by the fact he kept her from blowing herself up just earlier. ' _I… I appreciate the offer but considering you just kept me from blowing myself up along with another hero I think it's in my best interest and others around me that you stay around.'_

' _I could write a book on magic before I do it, one containing all the knowledge you might need on Magic. Safety instructions, science, different attack magics, soul weapons. You don't need me, I'd just mess things up again.'_

' _A book or a series is a good thing to have but it's not the fastest nor the best way when I have the original source right here. And a book can't personally show me magic like you've done already, meaning it'd take a long time to figure it out with a book compared to you.'_ She was worried about the voice in her head and now she had a gold opportunity to get rid of it, but she didn't want to get rid of it.

' _You might learn faster with me, but I might screw up again, like I did with the green guys, or Armsmaster. You are smart, you can figure it out from a book. Plus, with the power of your soul, you don't need the really advanced techniques. You don't need me.'_

If she didn't know better he wanted to leave. ' _If I want to make a difference and help people I need to be able to learn as much as I can as fast as I can. Power doesn't mean anything if I don't know how to use it at the beginning, that makes a difference. Besides where would you go, I thought you wanted to be a hero?'_

' _I wouldn't be anywhere, I'd be gone. Silly of me to think I could be a hero, I would just screw it up. You can be a hero instead, using my power, and I wouldn't be bothering anyone anymore.'_

Her hair bristled as she finally realized what he meant by removal. Good solution to getting rid of him, not one that she was sure she wanted to have him take. ' _Why do you think everything that's happened so far is your fault?'_

' _Because it is!'_ He cried ' _I shot all those fireworks without thinking! I yelled at you in front of Armsmaster! I allowed Chara to sacrifice herself! And then I betrayed her trust, causing her to die again, my dad to declare war on humanity, my mom to leave him, the next six humans who entered the underground to be slaughtered, and for me to be turned into a soulless plant which tortured everyone! It is all my fault!'_

She really had no idea how to rebuttal half of that. But she did try with what she did know. ' _From what you told me you had no choice about being a flower. If it weren't for me being stupid with magic you never would have had to step in and yell at me. So far you haven't done a single bad thing here, you've been trying to keep me from making mistakes.'_ She said trying to calm him down.

' _It would still be much safer if I was just gone. So you can live your life happily.'_

' _Safer how? Safer for the people we can't help because I don't know how to use my magic or for me for the same reason? What will make me happy is getting rid of the criminals all over Brockton Bay and it'll be easier and safer with you around. Don't you want to help people?'_

' _But if I stick around, I will mess things up. Some people might suffer from you not knowing your magic, but many more would if I mess up again. I've been here for a week, and I already scared most of the city with the fire-works, and I broke my promise to you by revealing myself to Armsmaster. Who knows what would happen next week, or maybe in a month.'_

' _I'll be honest with you when you told me that story of yours… I was uncomfortable to say the least about you being in my head. But you just… killing yourself because of a few accidents is something I don't want to happen. It's just not right.'_

' _Why not? It would protect so many people, why would my life matter?'_

' _Because… I care. You're the only person besides my dad who listens to me anymore, you genuinely care about what I say or think, the fact you saved my life and I actually enjoy the magic training. Before you came along my life sucked.'_ She admitted.

' _Oh.'_ He quietly said, sounding astonished. After a moment he continued ' _Are you sure? Even after learning about Flowey?'_ He sounded like he couldn't believe anyone would care about him after learning about his past.

Opening her eyes and looking out the window as her dad drove them home she watched the crowds of families, friends and people spend their time together. ' _That makes me worried and a bit scared… but I still don't want you to ever talk about killing yourself.'_

' _Even if it's the right thing to do?'_ He asked in a small voice, no longer sounding so sure that it is the right thing to do.

' _It's not the right thing to do. Killing somebody isn't ever right, especially when it's yourself.'_

' _Oh.'_ Was his only response.

He didn't say anything else and so she thought it would be a good idea to change the subject, he always got excited when he explained magic or they practiced. ' _So what's a soul weap-'_

"Are you okay Taylor?" Her dad asked, interrupting her question inside her head.

Looking up at him she saw him frowning with a concerned look on his face. "Why do you ask?"

"You're crying." He said matter of factly. Confused she lifted a hand up to her face and found there were tears falling freely from her eyes. When did she start crying? "Did Armsmaster lie about the reason you were upset earlier?"

Sniffling she wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. "No I was just… thinking about things." Should she tell him? Armsmaster did say it would be better if she did and he was her dad, a person to rely on and confide in not to mention it'd be good for her to talk to somebody. And probably Asriel too. "I'll… I'll tell you what it is when we get home. I need to think of how to phrase it to tell you."

He furrowed his brow but turned back to the wheel to continue driving. "Alright."

' _Are you going to tell him?'_ Asriel asked anxiously, though there was a note of hope to it.

Leaning back against the seat she answered him, ' _Armsmaster knows, so why shouldn't my dad? Besides I think my dad would want to know about you.'_

She felt her lips twitch into a small, sad smile, and Asriel responded. ' _Thanks.'_


	6. Interlude: Regarding Angel of Death

AN: Whaddya mean by long-winded AMC? And Zarb thanks for catch about calling Clockblocker a cockblocker and yes the PRT's weapons was redundant information for Worm readers, but when I write crossovers I try my best to make it readable and understandable for ANYBODY reading, regardless of their prior knowledge. Also don't expect constant long or short chapters, we just go until whenever we feel like stopping.

Armsmaster had his arms crossed, standing across from Director Piggot an obese woman wearing a navy-blue jacket and skirt, that went with her bleached blonde bob-style haircut. The two of them were waiting for the third member of their meeting to arrive, the Director sitting at the head of the table and was flipping through their newest Wards' papers. It had only been a few minutes of waiting in the meeting room, it completely absent of any other people.

Somebody knocked on the door and Armsmaster looked towards it to see Miss Militia come in and close the door behind herself. She wore a standard American soldier's uniform, modified to accentuate her curves, an American-flag scarf covering the lower half of her face and a similar sash around her waist, a pistol strapped to her side. The Director looked up from the papers to greet Militia, "Glad you could make it MIss Militia, now we can get this underway." She looked to Armsmaster. "I assume our newest Ward has some issues we need to cover?"

He waited until Miss Militia took her own seat, the pistol turning into a blur of green and black into her hands so she could fiddle with a combat knife. "Yes, multiple issues in fact regarding Azriel aka Taylor Hebert. The first of which is regarding the earlier discussion I had with you about Shadow Stalker. After investigating the incident that made Taylor trigger I have confirmed that Shadow Stalker was one of the girls to shove her into the locker along with years of bullying, that was supported by dozens of students who were apparently too scared beforehand by her to come forward."

Piggot shook her head and put the papers detailing Taylor's powers down. "Which is in direct violation of her parole."

"Exactly, which was why she was sent to jail. However, it might be better to not inform Taylor about Shadow Stalker being her bully, would darken our reputation for our lack of oversight, and potentially change her opinions on joining. As such, I believe it would be a good idea to inform the Wards on Taylor's connection to Shadow Stalker, as well as order them to not mention Shadow Stalker's civilian name around her."

Piggot shook her head with a sigh. "Agreed. Though it upsets me that this has been happening for years?" She asked for confirmation to which Armsmaster nodded. "What did the school personnel have to say?"

"The entire time they denied it any incidents of bullying so I went around them to talk to the students myself. I was planning on confronting them with the evidence I've acquired, see what else they were trying to cover up."

Miss Militia interrupted one hand going up to halt him. "I can handle that, we both know I'm better at talking to people than you. Have you checked in with her parole officer yet?"

He shook his head."With what I gathered I didn't think it was needed, already had enough evidence regarding her school activities when the thought crossed my mind."

Militia looked to Piggot. "I'll also check with her parole officer, see if there was anything going on that he might've missed that could have told us."

Nodding she brought her hands up to under her chin. "Good we'll get rid of them if they were helping to cover it up, this is an inexcusable event that has happened. The next part of this meeting?"

"The next item is regarding her powers, which the Director has already read partly through." The Director slid the packet to Miss Militia who took it and started flipping through. "I believe she'd make an excellent addition to the team and might be the Ward's new big gun. She fired a ball of fire that the sensors recorded with enough force behind it to level a building and did not look drained in any way, lifted almost ten metric tons again seemingly unaffected afterwards, is immune to anything weaker than and including handguns and was apparently the one to cover the city in ABZ colored lights." Militia cocked a brow at that and looked up from the packet.

Piggot frowned at that, because of the amount of accidents that had caused, with people wrecking their cars and the amount of distress it had caused with many members of the public. The lights had appeared without warning across the entire city, surprising many, causing said accidents. "She does sound like a powerhouse but why did she cover the city in lights? Was she trying to train with her powers and conveniently do it with gang colors?"

"That brings us to the third and I believe most prevalent issue regarding our newest recruit. According to her, her power gave her a voice inside her head that knows how to use her powers and seems to be very childish." Both of them had a confused look as he said that, so he pointed to the TV behind Piggot's head. "If you'd both turn to the TV?" He turned it on via a button on his wrist, bringing up a static image of him and Taylor in her other form at the firing range. "This is down by the firing range where we were about to complete the Blaster test and see what she could do."

He played the video and let them see the rest of the events unfold, her fireball forming, a look of distress flashing across her features, the massive explosion as she hurriedly shot it, then the argument she had with herself. As the argument ended and she explained it to his past self he looked at the other two for their expressions, Piggot with her usual steely face only interrupted by a cocked brow and Miss Militia with a frown. "After this outburst I looked back to some other recordings and found another instance I believe directed to this voice."

He pressed another button and the TV flickered to show her whispering to herself the Brute testing room. " _Are all human souls the same or what's the rule with them?"_

He paused the screen and looked at his companions. Piggot had a grim expression, while Miss Militia had a disturbed one. "Well," she said "that doesn't sound good, especially when paired with her chosen name. And she didn't make any references to what she might mean in her powers list?"

Piggot looked between the two of them. "I'm sorry but what's human souls have to do with her name?"

Militia looked at her and explained. "Azriel is the name for the angel of death in many cultures. So Taylor talking to a voice in her head about human souls combined with her chosen name isn't exactly re-assuring."

Piggot's frown deepened. "I see… that almost sounds like Glaistig. Doesn't she claim to collect cape's souls?"

Armsmaster shook his head, turning the TV off. "She refers to them as Faeries but yes that's what Glaistig claims and we know she uses dead cape's powers, which supports what she says. The fact that we all came to the same conclusion from this isn't a comforting thought." He turned towards Militia who was now sitting at complete attention. "And no her power sheet didn't include any references to what she might mean by 'souls being the same'."

Piggot sighed, one hand going up to wipe at her face. "I take it all our ideas regarding them mentioning souls is along the same lines of Glaistig then?" They both nodded. "So what can we do to figure out what she means by that?"

"We could ask her." Armsmaster stated simply. "My lie detector should be able to tell whether she is lying or not, or if she's hiding anything. And we can pass a recording of it to some Thinkers to be sure. If she lies then we'll know and act accordingly."

Miss Militia nodded gesturing with her knife to him. "I think that's the best thing we can do short of treating her like a criminal for us thinking something that might not even be true. But I'll come with you, make sure you don't stick your foot in your mouth again."

"Then that's how we'll handle it, I'll leave a note in the report, asking to borrow a few Thinkers. I'm sure with how dangerous Glastig was the higher-ups will give us most anything we need to confirm whether or not Taylor might be like her."

Armsmaster crossed his arms with a frown. "Then our last issue is regarding what could be a simple glitch or the fact that Taylor is an anomaly with the fact she does not in fact, have a Corona Pollentia. Which flies in the face of Parahuman research that's always pointed to that part of the brain as being how we control and use our powers."

Militia's brows furrowed. "She doesn't have one? At all?"

"It's either a glitch or she doesn't. The scan didn't pick up so much as a hint as to that part of the brain, I'm planning on contacting Dragon later to help me make sure the system is fine then we'll rescan her again along with all the other tests."

Piggot stood up and shook her head again with another frown. "Our newest Ward is a special one isn't she? Anything else that we need to cover Armsmaster, because if not I need to send a report immediately so we can have the resources we need to tell whether or not Taylor is lying when you ask her."

He shook his head, Miss Militia standing up now too. "No that was all Director."

"Alright, you're both dismissed." With that they all left the meeting room, minds focused on their newest member.


	7. Time for Pie

AN: To all those that are attributing the missing Corona Pollentia, the part of the brain necessary to have superpowers, to Asriel's state not having organs, we meant in her human state. In her normal state she has all the regular organs of a human except the Corona Pollentia, absolutely no signs of it having ever been there and the scanner can see all her other organs perfectly without interference. So that's why the heroes 'jumped' straight to the missing Corona, her power wasn't interfering with the scan in human form, which is where they noticed the issue.

She sat across from her dad in an awkward silence, head down on the kitchen table with arms in front of her while her dad sat upright in his chair. She had no idea how to tell him, having tried to think something up on the car-ride home, Asriel not having any ideas either. After all the things he'd been through and hard work he's done, she wanted to say it as gently as possible for him so he wouldn't freak out. Five minutes of awkward silence with her dad, neither of them having said anything, him just a re-assuring smile to her when she looked up. Not having any better ideas she asked Asriel, ' _Just want to introduce yourself?"_

She felt her shoulders shrug and Asriel take control, causing their body to begin to change back into his form. It only took about minute this time, was it getting faster? When it was done, Asriel took a deep breath, and sat back up, putting on his best smile. "Howdy! I'm Asriel Dreemur, and I'm- um," and here he lost his confidence, and turned his gaze to the side, twiddling his fingers. "I'm sharing a body with your daughter."

Her dad blinked, smile falling away into a confused frown. "T-that's not funny."

She winced at that. ' _Uh want to keep going or let me?'_

Asriel looked down at his lap, still twiddling his fingers, but continued. "I'm not joking, Mr Hebert. I came across your daughter while she was trapped in the locker, and since I was stuck too, I selfishly thought to make a deal. I give your daughter my powers, in exchange for taking me into her soul freeing me as well. I'm sorry."

Her dad didn't say anything for a moment before his chair scraped against the floor as he stood up, Asriel glancing up to see him walking around the table then take the chair that was to their right and placing it beside them. He sat down with a frown, one arm on the table and the other hand running through his hair. "You… you aren't joking are you?"

"I'm afraid not, Mr Hebert." Asriel said, looking up at him.

He sighed and his hands went to his face in exasperation. "First powers now this?" With a groan he removed his hands and looked down at them, she noted with an almost angry frown. "...Maybe you can explain how exactly you got in my daughter's head?"

"W-well, I was, um, fading." He began. "And I got scared, I didn't want to become an unfeeling flower again. So, I reached across dimensions, looking for someone, and I found Taylor, trapped in that locker. I brought her mind into a pseudo-space, so we could talk, free from the passage of time and other physical constraints, and I offered her the power to become a Hero. All she had to do, was absorb my soul into hers. I, uh, didn't tell her that in doing so, I would be coming with. I tricked her into freeing me, into taking me into her mind, robbing her of her privacy. I'm really sorry."

He just shook his head. "And how does my daughter feel about this all happening?"

That was her. She drummed her fingers on the tabletop in front of them. "I uh… I'm grateful for him getting me out of the locker and a bit annoyed about him tricking me. But," She added on quickly when he narrowed his eyes. "He knows how to use our powers so I don't mind too much about him being in my head."

One arm of his went to their shoulder and patted them reassuringly. "How am I supposed to tell who's talking though? Only thing that was off when uh, 'Asriel' was talking was him saying howdy."

There really wasn't a way to tell the difference, they sounded the same unless they wanted to switch forms every time one of them wanted to say something. Maybe just something to indicate like raising a hand? Lifting her left hand up she smiled sheepishly. "Left hand for me talking and right hand for Asriel talking?"

He shrugged. "That works I guess… You're okay with another person in your head?"

Left hand still raised she nodded, "He doesn't really do much except apologize for what he thinks might upset me."

"And what he wants out of staying in your head?" He asked with a frown and a glower, directed at Asriel even though he was looking at her still.

Asriel lifting their right hand and began "I, uh, offer-"

Nope do not want him telling her already concerned dad, that he as a voice inside her head, was sort of suicidal. Slamming their mouth shut, she yanked their right arm down and accidentally slammed it into the table, and raised her left hand up in place of his and said hastily. "He needed somebody to talk to."

The room went silent for a few moments, Asriel and Danny both stunned by her sudden movements. Her dad recovered first. "W-Wha-"

She interrupted him to hurriedly elaborate on it. "He was lonely so I let him stay in my head."

He frowned. "So nothing bad?" She shook her head and he gave her a thin smile along with a one-handed hug. "Just remember I'm here for you okay Taylor?" She returned the hug and buried her head into his shoulder. "You want something to eat? It's almost time for dinner."

"Oh" Asriel said, raising his right hand excitedly. "I can help! I'm good at cooking!"

That caught her dad off-guard, making him jump slightly. Letting go he stood back up and put the chair back and with a raised brow he said, "If uh… Taylor doesn't… mind you can help." He sighed, "It's going to take a while to get used to this."

Asriel looked down at his left hand and excitedly asked, "Well? Can I?"

"Just a sec. Hey dad?" He looked back at her, pausing in his movement to their fridge. "Thanks for believing me, it's a lot to take in one day."

"You're my daughter, I'm going to be there whenever you need it." He said with a smile. "So is uh Asriel going to help cook?"

"He can if he wants." She said shrugging.

"Yes!" He exclaimed happily. "Been a while, but I totally remember how to make a good pie. Can I make a pie? Monster food doesn't have any nutrients humans need, so it would probably be good to make something that wouldn't have much nutritional value anyways, and I'm not as good at Human Food as Monster food. Plus, I think my pies are what I'm best at, cooking wise." As he babbled on, he already rushed over to the cabinets carrying a chair, and started looking through them grabbing various supplies. "Oooh, you have butterscotch."

Danny half-smiled at them, reaching up into the spice cabinet and pulling a few things out. "So you, Asriel I mean, like to cook?"

"Totally! My mom taught me how. Can you get that cinnamon?" He seemed happy now compared to earlier she thought to herself while he held one hand outstretched to her dad.

He obliged and handed it down to them. Walking over to the fridge he pulled out a couple chicken breasts, setting them on the counter. "Who's your mom?"

"Toriel Dreemur, Queen of the Monsters. But most people just call her Toriel." He replied, snatching a few final things from the cabinet before moving on.

Her dad nodded as he prepared the chicken. "So you're the prince then?"

He paused for a moment. "I guess I am. Never really thought of it like that." Then he shrugged and got back to his work. "Despite being King and Queen, my family never lived like royals, so I sometimes forget they are actually the King and Queen."

"Then I don't need to apologize for the accommodations then." He said with a laugh. "What's Monster food supposed to be?"

"Monster food is Monster food. It's different from Human food in that, when you eat it, it turns straight into energy. Just fine for Monsters, but Humans actually need nutrients, so while they could go a few days on Monster Food, they would grow sick over time." He said, as he went over to the refrigerator and started getting things from there.

Danny started coating the chicken with various spices. "Alright so it's junk food. Can either of you tell me about what your powers are? I have no idea what Blaster, Brute and the others mean."

"We can do magic." As he said this, Taylor felt their magic twist and multiple fireballs came into existence around them. "It can be used to do all sorts of things, but since Taylor absorbed my soul, we have been having to relearn fine-control to do most of it. I still know all the technical stuff, but I guess it's like having to learn how to fight in a completely different body, intellectually you know what you have to do, just you have a hard time actually doing it." When he finished, he moved the fire-balls up out of the way near the ceiling, and walked over to the counter with his arms full of various things from the fridge.

"You make it sound like you know how to do more than fireballs." He commented.

"Oh yeah, magic can do a lot of things. Just covering Attack Magics, you can form it into a physical object to smack and pierce things with, you can turn it into lasers, turn it into bombs, all sorts of things." He began putting things in a bowl and mixing them.

He cast a sideways glance to them. "You uh, seem to know how to fight then."

"Yeah, I learned all types of magics. Even colored magics."

"Which is what?" He asked, turning on the stove and pulling out a pan to put the chicken on. She was curious too as to what colored magic was, it was the first time she had heard of it.

"It's one of the more advanced forms of magic, not many Monsters learn how to use one. They are called Colored Magics because, for reasons still not really understood, magics of that type always glow with the same color. Blue Magic effects gravity, Green Magic can Heal and Protect, Cyan magic can create illusions, and Purple Magic can trap and bind people and things. There is also Yellow and Orange, but those are usually considered separate from the others, since they don't do anything new but rather upgraded versions of abilities most monsters already have. Yellow Magic makes extremely accurate and precise projectiles, and Orange enhances physical strength and durability. There are also mentions of a Red magic in various historical records, but no-one had any idea what that is suppose to do beyond being the strongest of all the Colored Magics, but also requires a fairly big sacrifice and lots of determination to use. Do you have any pie tins? I could cook this in any container, but pies are suppose to be in pie-tins." He asked, having finished mixing the pie-filling.

Danny leaned down and opened a cabinet, handing them a pie-tin. "Is that a different type of magic besides your fireballs or is that a… sub-branch or something?"

"Colored magics? Comparing Fire Magic to those is like comparing multiplication to fourier transformations. Only vaguely related." Asriel poured the pie filling into the tin, and placed it on the counter.

"Ah… speaking of, how do you do your transformation thing?" He asked, standing beside the stove as the chicken cooked, watching them make whatever pie Asriel was focused on making.

"I honestly don't know. It happens pretty much automatically after we will ourselves to change. It seems like we can only do the two though, maybe it has to do what we mentally see ourselves as, the physical form that feels most natural, and our Soul naturally aligns with that." As he was saying that, he brought the fire balls down from the ceiling, and converged them on the pie, the balls forming into one large fire-ball completely surrounding the pie. Taylor was able to feel the magic constantly twisting, though she wasn't sure what it was doing.

"Uhuh." He muttered watching Asriel cook the pie. "What about a Soul though, that sounds religious."

"Oh no, not at all. One moment." He brought this hands before his chest, and held them there while twisting and turning her magic in a way that seemed impossible, folding it in on itself and pulling bits out of seemingly nothing, before he was done and a heart appeared before their chest. But it was nothing like the heart she remembered when she first met Flowey, this one glowed bright and had wisps of multicolored light surrounding it, and pulsed to the beat of her heart. "This is our soul. It's changed some since she absorbed mine, but it's still mostly human."

He blinked and leaned in as if their Soul might disappear at a moments notice, mouth slightly agape. "Your Soul?" Asriel seemed to be on a roll with how he was explaining all the magic to her dad, each time just seeming to surprised him more and more. Along with her with the new info that she was hearing from their mouth, the facts he was stating about colored magic being things that she would have loved to know so she could find out what they could do.

"Yeah." He said nonchalantly. "Want to see yours?"

His eyes flickered up to their face then back down to their Soul, still seeming to not believe the fact that it was there floating in front of his face. "Uh… sure." He said disbelievingly.

Asriel then placed his hand on Danny's chest, and she felt a similar impossible twisting of magic, which this time flowed down their hand till it seemed to grab something in Danny's chest, and when they pulled their hand back a dark blue heart followed, though this one didn't have any of the wisps or bright glow their soul did. "There you go. Taylor's soul looked like that before, but purple. The wisps and bright glow are from the fusion."

He stared down incredulously at the heart emanating from his chest and gently wrapped his hands around it. "It feels warm."

"Yep, it's full of life and power." He said cheerfully before turning his attention to the pie, and with a wave of his hands the flames dispersed leaving a slightly steaming, cooked pie behind. "And there, pie's done. My mother's signature Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie, haven't had one in forever."

Her dad just kept staring down at the Soul he held in his hands not saying anything to them or paying attention to the chicken he was cooking. Raising their left hand she said, "Uh dad, the chicken?" He looked up when she called him to see her pointing to the stove with the chicken on it.

"Right." He hurriedly flipped the chicken over then glanced down at his Soul one final time before shaking his head. "Uh, how long is my… Soul going to be like this?"

Asriel went to his side to watch what he was doing with the chicken while answering "About eight more minutes, if the spell isn't canceled early."

"Okay…" He muttered. "How's the body sharing thing between you two?"

' _You wanna answer it?'_ Asriel asked her. ' _I have been doing all the talking for the last while.'_

' _I was just letting you handle it because you know more stuff than I do, like colored magic which you're going to explain to me later. But if you want I can try and take over.'_

' _It's a question you can answer, but either way is fine.'_

Lifting the left hand again she answered since it seemed Asriel felt he was talking too much. "It's disorienting to say the least when he's doing something because I'm not the one doing it. As for how to describe it, it's uh… like feeling distant in your own body from something you shouldn't be distant from. Not sure how to describe it past that though. How's the chicken coming?" She asked, changing back to her original form.

"A few more minutes." He answered. "What's Asriel's past like? He sounds like he might have been a magic teacher but that… form thing of yours looks like a kid."

Left hand still raised she took a few moments to think over what she was going to say, obviously not going to tell him the whole truth. "Well uh you know time travel and stuff right dad?" He nodded an eyebrow already arching at just her mentioning that. "He got stuck in a time loop thing as a child and remained like that for a long time, until he gave up most of his soul to stop the loop and help his family. Which led to his soul fusing deal so he would have a soul again and I'd get powers."

' _That's… um, correct."_ Asriel slowly stated in surprise. ' _But, also completely wrong.'_

Her dad didn't seem convinced as he narrowed his eyes and had his mouth agape slightly, not sure what to say. After several moments he finally shook his head and turned to his chicken. "Time travel really?"

She wiggled her left hand with a little grin. "It's what he said and I don't see why he'd lie about something as crazy as that." ' _I'll tell why I said it like that later.'_ She said in her head to Asriel.

He sighed again. "It's just all kind of hard to believe… how's he feel about being in your head?" He asked surprisingly directed towards Asriel.

He raised her right hand and answered "It, uh, takes some getting use to, sharing a body. But Taylor is really nice, so it's not that bad."

Danny nodded, flipping the chicken once more. "It's good you two are fine with each other then. How much of that magic stuff has my daughter learned?"

Left hand went up. "Uh just the fire magic things, but not a lot of it. I can't do what he did earlier to cook the pie but he says I'm learning fast."

"You are a smart kid Taylor. To Asriel, how long do you think it'd take her to do some of the other things you said like gravity altering?" He asked, rubbing his eyes with one hand.

Right hand. "I'm not sure. Maybe a couple months, maybe a year or two. While she is learning fast, what she is currently learning is still basic stuff. Mostly control exercises, and Colored Magics are really advanced."

"That doesn't sound long considering the types of things you listed. You're a goat thing right? Are all Monsters like that or…?"

"I was what was known as a Boss Monster, a special, extra-strong type of Monsters, who tend to be in charge because of their longevity. Other monsters can come in all kinds of shapes and forms. There are Skeletons, clams, fish-people, fire-people, octopi, dogs, cats, lizards, all kinds."

"That's… a lot of things." He said with another sigh. "Lot of things to learn from our new… guest. Chicken is ready if you're hungry." He grabbed two plates for each of them and slid the chicken onto the plate.

"Thanks dad." She grabbed a plate and let him cut her a piece, eyes flicking to the pie that was steaming off to the side, curious as to what it tasted like with Asriel having seemed so proud in making it. "Mind if I try Asriel's pie?" Her dad shook his head and she grabbed a slice of pie and cut a small part of it off to pop in her mouth, the taste being awesome with butterscotch washing over her taste-buds. Despite him having just cooked it a few minutes earlier it didn't burn, rather just being pleasantly warm. The best part though was the fact she felt a rush of energy, from just a small bite of it, go through her body, giving her a pleasant surprise "Oh this is awesome."

Her dad looked at the pie and shrugged before grabbing himself a slice and taking a bite of it. His eyes snapped open in surprise when he tasted it. "You're right, this is good." He said with a smile at them. She could _feel_ Asriel radiating happiness that they liked his pie.


	8. Friendly Banter

Taylor clicked her claws against the table in front of her as they both waited in the same room as when they first arrived and filled out those forms, the time passing quickly as she talked to Asriel in her head. ' _Monster Food is weird isn't it… '_ She paused as that reminded her of something else from last night. ' _You know I forgot to ask, what's a Soul Weapon?'_

' _Oh, Soul Weapons are a rather archaic, and not well understood branch of magic. Simply, it's the manifestation of your soul's might, a conduit through which you can more powerfully channel magic energy, being of your soul and all. Manifesting a soul weapon is extremely difficult, and since it's' been so long since they were sealed underground, only my dad and Old Man Gerson knew how anymore. Undyne was on her way to learning, but hadn't gotten there yet. The form the Soul Weapon takes is highly dependent on the wielder, and can even change if something significant happens to them. My dad's trident for example, gained a flower motif after my, uh, incident. I guess he figured out what happened with Chara at some point.'_

Stretching an arm out she wiggled her hand again. ' _Haven't heard of Gerson before. Your dad was the strongest right, so is that why he could do it?'_

' _Eeeeh, not really. My mom was about as strong as my Dad, sometimes stronger when she got mad. It's more a matter of skill than outright power, like lots of things with Magic. Being strong doesn't hurt though.'_

' _Gerson sounds like a magic master, especially with the Old Man part. Was he? Or just a skilled Monster?'_

' _Oh yeah. He was from back before the Monsters got sealed, and fought in The War of Humans and Monsters. Gerson, the Hammer of Justice, he was called. He was awesome, always told me awesome stories when I asked him to.'_

She summoned a little roll of fire around her pointer finger and started spinning it around. ' _His Soul Weapon is a hammer I'm guessing?'_

' _Yep. He could smash apart anything with it. Though, it tired him out. Even for a turtle, he's getting kinda old.'_

Soul Weapons sounded awesome, like pretty much everything else he had talked about so far. Except she noted he said only two people knew how. ' _So you don't know how to get one? A Soul Weapon I mean.'_

' _Oh, I do. Well, in theory at least. Before I just wasn't counting myself, since I kinda know a lot of things I shouldn't, but while I was Flowey I could not do it, probably because I didn't have a real soul. But during my final fight with Frisk I managed to do it. I'm pretty sure we can figure out how to do it after a while of training, though I have no idea what form they will take.'_

' _We really need to have you write down a list of everything you think we can do.'_ She commented half to herself and half to him. ' _What was your Soul Weapon? A spear or something like your dad's?'_

' _I had a twin set of swords I called Chaos Sabers. They were really awesome, pretty much exactly how I designed them. A few things different, like a cut-out portion near the tip, but they were still really cool.'_ He said, voice filled with pride.

She paused with twirling her finger covered in fire. ' _We can design Soul Weapons? What do we forge them or something?'_

' _Oh no, they aren't like Gaster Blasters. It's really just coincidental they were similar to my OCs.'_

She narrowed her eyes but smiled nonetheless. ' _Remind me that we need to write down what we can do, but more importantly an OC? If I remember my terminology right, that means original character? Something you made? What's its name?'_

' _His name is The Absolute God of Hyperdeath, and he's the coolest!'_ Asriel began excitedly. ' _He can shoot rainbows and swords, and is super strong. Nobody can defeat him!'_ He paused for a moment, before begrudgingly admitting. ' _Except Frisk. That doesn't make him less cool or anything. Frisk is just_ too _cool.'_

At the beginning she had been grinning, the middle she started giggling and at the end she had busted out laughing at what Asriel was saying. It sounded like a child's imagination run wild with everything they could think of being cool, shoved together in one neat package. It was hilarious she thought to herself, smacking the table in front of her.

' _What!?'_ Asriel yelled at her indignantly. ' _He really is cool!'_

Then the fact that he apparently didn't know why she was laughing just made it even funnier and she ended up pounding the table in laughter, with her voice in her head still seeming unsure of why she was laughing. It was at that inopportune moment that Armsmaster came in, followed by Miss Militia who both gave her weird looks as they walked in, the sight of a goat-child tearing up, laughing at seemingly nothing. Regardless they both took a seat opposite her as she tried to reign in her laughter but failing. She did manage to choke out a, "Sorry!" In between a few laughs.

Half a minute passed before she calmed down and wiped a tear from her eye. "I'm sorry, I ah thought of something funny." With a deep breath, to focus more on what she was here for she asked, "So what do you guys need?"

Miss Militia crossed her arms on the table in front of her and gently said, "Well after Armsmaster, told us about the voice in your head," Her smile fell ever so slightly, remembering their freakout. "We decided to go over some security footage to try and see if there were any type of quirks you had. During which we found you whispering to yourself about souls." Militia paused and folded her hand together and pointed to them. "So I'm sure that since you… two took the name of the Angel of Death, I'm sure you can understand our concern."

She frowned for a second, not sure what they were talking about before it clicked. Azriel was a common name for the Angel of Death, which was Asriel's name… it would probably be best she didn't tell them that it **was** his name because that might be even more concerning to them. "I uh had been reading a book earlier and couldn't think of anything for a name. Since then I decided to keep it because well…" She shrugged with a sheepish grin. "I like it."

' _O-oh. I thought my name was from my dad combining his and mom's names. But me being the angel of death, that makes sense.'_

' _You okay?'_ She asked him before Miss Militia could say anything.

Militia nodded. "Well that's a bit less worrying, but we're still curious as to what you were talking about earlier with your companion regarding souls."

' _Yeah, me being named after the angel of death makes perfect sense, considering all that I have done. I just bring death and suffering. You sure you want me to stay?'_

She held up a finger to the heroes for time in both addressing Asriel and thinking about what to say about souls. ' _Asriel… come on we talked about this, you've done more than that.'_

' _Yeah…'_ was all he said in response.

' _Remember why we're here, to be a hero.'_

' _Yeah.'_ He said more assuredly. ' _We're gonna be good guys.'_

' _There we go.'_ With that, for the moment, taken care of she turned her attention to thinking about whether or not having the expert in her head saying anything to the heroes would be a good idea or not. She could accidentally say something the wrong way and upset them, give them the wrong idea or even 'confirm' whatever they might be thinking. On the other hand they were worried about the voice in her head and having him talk to them could be unsettling with how it would change the way she would talk, along with the fact he didn't think about what he said most of the time.

No it'd be a bad idea to have Asriel talk to them. Didn't mean she couldn't ask for advice or a way to explain something if she needed it. Pressing her forefingers against her lips she carefully said, "Well… we were talking about our powers and he mentioned souls… er my soul powering my abilities… I asked him if they were all the same, which he explained as a no."

Armsmaster glanced at Miss MIlitia whose eyes seemed to give the smile that was hidden by her scarf and he asked. "Your soul being what exactly?"

"I uh…" She trailed off not sure how to explain it since she didn't believe in much of a soul prior to Asriel coming along. "They're kind of hard to explain. Give me a minute."She said holding up a single finger, Asriel showed her dad his own soul last night when they were talking so maybe he could do the same with them, because she really didn't have a better idea of how to. ' _Asriel can you do the same thing you did with my dad yesterday if they're okay with it when I ask?'_

' _Um, yeah, easily.'_ Asriel responded nervously.

' _Show mine first?'_ She asked mentally nodded, and moved their hand to their chest and, with the same impossible twist of magic, their soul appeared, as bright and impressive as before. Gesturing to it, both of the senior heroes now paying rapt attention, Armsmaster frowning and Miss Militia's brow going up, she said, "Well I can't really explain it beyond being what one normally thinks of when I say soul." She took a second to remember what Asriel said. "It's the very culmination of your being, defining who you are with various colors meaning various things about people. I could show you guys what yours is like?" She offered.

Armsmaster seemed to jump on her offer with an, "Alright." Sitting somehow even more upright than before he watched her as she slid out of the chair and walked over to stand in front of him for when Asriel would do his soul thing.

He raised their hand and rested it on his breast-plate, and repeated the twist of magic, flowing it down his arm and grasping Armsmaster's soul, pulling out a purple heart with a small black star in the middle when they pulled back their hand. ' _Purple, Perseverance. But… I don't know what is with the star.'_ Asriel commented.

She had them take a step back as Armsmaster stared down at his soul and held a finger just a few inches away from it, seeming to judge whether or not to poke it.. "Your soul's purple, meaning it's perseverance. You always keep going, even when you feel trapped, you'll just take a step back to see what isn't working and try, try again."

Miss Militia chuckled to the side. "Yeah that sounds about right." They looked towards her. "How come his soul has that star and yours doesn't?"

Shrugging she said, "No idea, he doesn't have a clue either."

"Hmm... okay how about my soul then?" She asked.

They nodded and walked over to her, Asriel repeating the same process that he did for Armsmaster, this time the heart that came out was ever-shifting blend of Yellow and Orange, the colors swirling together in parts. This soul too had a black-star in the middle. ' _Yellow and Orange, Justice and Bravery.'_

She blinked, surprised at it being a combination before brushing it off as another thing Asriel didn't say since she didn't explicitly ask. "And you're a combination of yellow and orange, justice and bravery respectively. You'll do whatever you can to end the mayhem of villains and the type of person who won't back down in the face of danger." Stepping back she looked towards Armsmaster who had quirked his lips to the side as he gently handled his soul with a curious and careful manner.

Miss Militia chuckled again looking at her soul. "That sounds like me."

Armsmaster nodded. "This certainly is interesting but I believe we can talk about this at a later date. We're here to make sure that your voice isn't a danger." They stepped back in slight surprise at the way he said that, it seeming pretty hostile.

Miss Militia sighed and grabbed their shoulder reassuringly. "What he means to say is that we're here today to see how you're dealing with the voice." She cast a momentary glare to him. "So what's the voice like?"

Moving back to their chair because it felt better than standing there awkwardly she answered, "Uh he's nice and pretty easy to walk over, always afraid to talk when somebody else is. He even apologizes when he feels he's intruding on my privacy… ya'know with the whole being in my head and seeing what I see."

' _I'm not easy to walk over.'_ Asriel mumbled petulantly in her head.

One of Miss MIlitia's brows raised in surprise. "It's a male?"

Addressing Asriel first, ' _When was the last time you complained about anything instead of apologizing for something to me?'_ Directing her attention back to Miss Militia she nodded and added on, "He's a kid too, pretty naive when it comes to gangs. Though I already kinda told Armsmaster that."

' _... now?'_

' _Besides now.'_

' _Well, you don't have to be mean about it.'_ He said, petulant again.

"Did he just appear in your head when you got your powers or did he have a past prior to that?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head.

' _Sorry but it's the truth.'_ Rubbing the back of her head she questioned whether or not to say anything about his past because it could complicate things further. Deciding on not saying anything she shook her head but did decide to tell them the fact that he knew her powers. "No he just kind of showed up. He does know how all my powers work along with a bunch of things that he's still listing. He did say that he's not sure whether or not we can do anything else yet."

Armsmaster frowned and shook his head and said matter of factly. "It would really be better for all of us if you didn't lie Taylor."

Her eyes widened in surprise and her breath hitched as Miss Militia looked between the two of them with another raised brow.. "Uh come again?"

He tapped the side of his helmet. "Some software I made reads your body language, tone, choice of words and the like to tell when you're lying. And you lied about him having some type of past."

Her eyes fell to the table in front of her and she laid her chin on the table. "I uh… thought saying anything about his past would be… it would make me sound more crazy. "

She was about to continue by telling them what she told her dad last night when Miss MIlitia spoke up with a comforting voice, like one would expect from a mother. "We don't think you're crazy Taylor. Triggers affect everybody differently and often times it can affect your mind, we're just trying to learn what we can to better help you with how your trigger affected you."

That made her feel a little relieved. Only a little. "Okay. It still sounds a bit crazy though." She took a deep breath and thought of how to say it. "He's the Prince of a small nation of Monsters, who got stuck in a time loop where he learned everything that there was to learn about magic, our power. He ended up losing most of his soul and stopped the time loop, letting everyone move on in their lives and said he heard me calling for help in my locker. Then he offered me the chance to be a hero if we shared souls so he wouldn't be stuck alone again."

Miss Militia raised an eyebrow, and Armsmaster sat up straighter in his Militia tapped her fingers once against the table thinking. "Well that's… certainly something. It does match up with you not having a Corona Gemma." She turned to Armsmaster. "She's telling the truth right?" He nodded and crossed his arms in thought.

Taylor on the other hand had no idea what they were talking about. "A Corona is what again?"

Armsmaster answered. "A Corona Potentia is the part of the brain that holds the potential for a person triggering and getting powers, where it becomes a Corona Gemma. A Corona Gemma is unique to each parahuman, vague differences between each one in accordance to their powers. You don't have that, not even a Corona Potentia."

Befuddled she said, "I don't get it. Don't I have powers?"

He nodded. "Yes you do. But according to our scans of your body, in your human form, your brain does not have either Corona. Nor any sign there was one." He said with a shake of his head. "So your power could very well be from your 'soul' as you call it."

"Oh." She breathed in surprise. It really was her soul. Making her unique among everybody with powers apparently.

Miss Militia hummed to herself for a moment. "So your power appears to be something different than everyone else's. Might mean you're immune to Trumps that cancel out powers… do you think he could teach others to use their 'souls'?"

' _Asriel?'_

' _Yeah, others should be able to learn. But they're human, without the benefit of a monster soul or a teacher showing them hands-on what they need to do. It would take a long while before they can learn to do even the basic magic you are doing.'_

That all sounded like a maybe. A maybe in the fact she could teach anybody magic. Wow. "Uh he says maybe. I'm still learning it myself and I have him in my head for every movement and mistake I might make. Other people don't get the benefits of that." She paused and looked down at her body. "That and his body helps me to control it, haven't been able to do anything as myself."

"That's an avenue we should try later." Armsmaster commented. "What type of 'magic' does he know how to do?"

Holding out her hand and counting off on each finger she listed what she could think of. "Uh he mentioned gravity manipulation, Soul Weapons which are basically super focused channels of our power, illusions, healing, augmenting our physical prowess and…" She shrugged. "He keeps listing more and more things and I'm planning on having him writing a list later."

"That's a lot of powers." Militia said, glancing back down at her soul.

Maybe it'd be a good idea to get rid of the souls, don't want somebody barging in and asking even more questions. Plus they were kinda distracting. ' _Hey Asriel can you get rid of the souls?'_

' _Sure.'_ With a brief wave of magic, the souls faded away. ' _Ending spells tend to be a lot easier than making them.'_ He explained.

The two heroes looked down to see their souls gone, Miss MIlitia being the one who asked, "What'd you do?"

"I dispelled them because they were kind of distracting."

That satisfied them, Miss MIlitia asking, "So none of your powers are to do with others souls?"

Now she knew why they called her in. They thought his name was the Angel of Death, they explicitly commented on hearing her talk about souls and so they must have been worried about her powers being able to reap souls or something like that. "No he's said nothing about other people's souls."

Armsmaster frowned again. "You just interacted with our souls didn't you?"

"I wasn't counting manifesting your soul." She quickly corrected. "Other than that he's said nothing about other people's souls." Holding up a finger she took a second to think about it and decided to ask Asriel. ' _We can't do things to other's souls can we?'_

' _Well, Colored Magics tend to work best when anchored to the target's soul, rather than just their body. And... we COULD probably absorb other people's souls, use their power to supplement our own. But that would involve killing them, which is bad.'_ He said hesitatingly.

"He just told me that colored magic, those other abilities I said I might be able to do, works better on souls."

That clarification seemed to relax only one of them, Armsmaster still frowning. "Taylor…" He said warningly, obviously his tech having caught her half-truth.

Sighing she told the other half. "He also says that we probably could absorb other's souls to get stronger but it would mean killing them."

They both frowned at that, Miss MIlitia tensing again as she said, "You'll probably have to have more sessions with your psychiatrist than normal. But I doubt you'd ever try that, it's just our job to be cautious."

"Yeah." She said, eyes downcast.

The table clicked as Miss Militia tapped her fingers against it. "That's all we wanted to know, so I think it's alright if we just go ahead and let you say hi to the Wards again." Taylor looked up as she said that. "Anything else we wanted to go over?" He shook his head and she stood up. "Want to meet a few more them?"

A small smile at the redirection and that she was going to meet a few more heroes. "Sure." Sliding out of the chair she followed Miss Militia as she left the room and went towards the same elevator as before. She took the opportunity to check with Asriel. ' _How you doing in there?'_

' _Alright. Just can't wait till we actually start to do good. Prove that I can.'_ He replied morosely.

He wasn't doing well like he said he was. There was one thing she could think of for cheering him up, after all it was best to keep the ex-psychopath on her head happy. ' _Hey uh… you want to be in control for a bit, talk to the Wards yourself?'_ She asked as Miss MIlitia stepped into the elevator and she followed close behind.

' _You sure? They'd think I am you.'_

Shrugging when she stepped in and behind Miss Militia she said, ' _Technically we are one person aren't we? Besides I feel you should be able to walk around at least every once in awhile.'_

With the feeling of transitioning control of the body, Asriel replied ' _Thanks.'_

They rode in silence for a moment, before their attention drifted to the gun on Miss Militia's hip. "Your power lets you change that gun between different guns, right?"

She looked down towards them, the pistol at her side becoming a green and black blur that flew into her outheld hands, now a grenade launcher like the one that the PRT guards had. "Sort of right and wrong. I can make it into any weapon I can understand. So no Tinker weapons sadly, but I can get by easily with the same weapons as the non-capes." She explained.

"How well do you have to understand it? General idea, or do you have to completely understand the underlying physics?" Taylor could tell that Asriel was getting an idea.

"Just the concept behind it, Tinker tech just makes no sense when you look at it." Her grenade launcher turned back into a pistol and she held it out as the elevator opened up into the steel corridor. "Things like this though, well we had them before we had powers."

"I might be able to make you a magic blaster." Asriel said happily, making Miss Militia pause as she had begun exiting the elevator. "Normally making blasters for other people wouldn't work, since it would require them understanding the magics involved enough to make their own, but your power might let you work around that. The function of the blaster isn't that complex in nature, it's acting mostly as a specialized conduit for your soul magic power. I think I could probably make one that you can understand."

Her brow raised out of amusement. "That something else he said you might be able to do?"

Asriel hesitated for a moment, before responding, making Taylor wonder if he was going to say anything about actually being the voice. "Uh, yeah!"

Miss Militia nodded and waved them on after her as she went to the door. "It would be a good idea to have him list what you can do later. And as for the blasters, it'll be something we can try out later, probably when Armsmaster has you two explain 'souls' more."

"Alright." He happily replied.

With that settled she leaned down and unlocked the door to the Ward's base. It was more or less the same Vista over by the computer's again, a seemingly generic mask that covered her face plastered on, wearing a simple blue skirt and shirt. When Vista saw them she shook her head and took of the mask, showing her youthful face in its entirety. "Oh hey! How are you doing?"

"Good. You?"

Shrugging she jumped off the chair and walked over to one of the doorways. "I'm fine, just staring at computer screens for criminal activity for over an hour." She smacked a closed door. "Hey Clock, Azriel's back!" They could hear a shout from behind the door and Vista walked away from it and to another door. She knocked on that one too. "Aegis, Azriel's here to say hi!"

She walked back over to her desk as the door opened up to show a young Puerto Rican man, barely a teenager now, wearing a sleeveless white shirt and jeans. He looked around the room for a second before his eyes settled on them and he smiled, closing the door behind him. He asked with crossed arms, "I hear you're going to be replacing me as the strongest person on the team?"

Asriel rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Heh, yeah, I guess."

Vista sat back down in her chair and twirled in it, while Aegis came up to them and offered a hand. "Know you've probably said hello a lot already but since it's the first time we've met. Real name's Carlos by the way."

He paused, and mentally nudged Taylor, curious as to whether it would be alright to tell him her name. When she responded positively, he took his hand and shook it, replying. "Taylor. I actually haven't met that many people yet. Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Vista, Clockblocker, Gallant, and now you."

"Just wait for all the PRT bureaucrats you'll get to know and psych people and etc. etc." He said with a roll of his eyes, before half-turning to Miss Militia. "Come down to say hi too?"

"Somebody had to let her in." She said with a shrug. "What's Clockblocker doing in there?"

Vista waved her hand dismissively. "He's taking a shower, something about being creeped out earlier. And since Carlos told his name, I'll do the same, it's Missy. No jokes about it." She said dead serious. "Have anything interesting happen with you Azriel, or are you just getting bored with all the tests and paperwork?"

"Um," Asriel glanced at Miss Militia before continuing, "all I have done today so far is answer a few questions they had about my powers."

Carlos shook his head with a smile. "That was the funnest part about joining. Hey why don't we take a seat, so we aren't standing in the middle of the room?" He suggested with a jerk of his thumb to the chairs.

"Sure." Asriel walked them over to the chair, and sat in it. "So what's your power?"

Carlos picked up a chair and swung it around so he could lean forward on the back of it, Miss Militia choosing to lean against the wall by the computers. "Redundant biology so I can't really get hurt, I can't feel pain, slight regeneration and I can fly. It's why I'm more or less the brute of the team, you can cut through my jugular," He tapped his neck. "And it'll just color me red for a second, doesn't harm me all that much. But to you, you can lift ten tons? Really?" He asked with a smirk.

"Yeah! And I think I can do more if I train." He replied happily.

Vista laughed from her seat. "Told you Dennis wasn't lying." She looked at their confused face and explained. "Eh that's Clockblocker's name."

Carlos just rolled his eyes. "You honestly think that I'd believe Clockblocker was telling the truth about our new kid-like member being able to handle ten tons?"

She shrugged. "Well I told you too so that's your own fault. Know when you're getting sworn in?" Vista asked them.

Miss Militia answered for them. "Sometime next week, trying to arrange things so everybody's schedules line up and finishing more paperwork."

"Oh cool." Missy said. "So one week until we get our new member and start working with her. Looking forward to when you become one of us?"

"Yeah! Can't wait to be a hero, and save some lives!" Asriel replied excitedly.

That made them laugh, Carlos shaking his head as he did. "I'm not sure whether to believe Clockblocker or not about you being sixteen."

"Hey why would I lie about something like that?" A person called out from the first doorway, meaning he must be Clockblocker. White but not pale he had ginger hair and was wearing a pair of shorts and another joke shirt. Walking over he continued, "If I didn't know better I'd say you didn't trust me Carlos." Taking a seat beside them he held up his hand for a high-five. "Don't have anything better to do besides hang out with us?"

High-fiving him, Asriel replied "They had me come in to answer some questions, and after that they let me come up here again."

"Oooo were you secretly a villain before?" He jokingly asked, wiggling his fingers.

MIssy threw a wad of paper at him, though neither of them saw where she got it from."Let's be serious for once Dennis."

Dennis grinned. "Hey it's my thing to joke around, best she get used to it now right? No offense meant to you of course." He said with one hand over his heart.

"None taken." Asriel replied as nonchalantly as possible, but Taylor felt him get rather nervous when Dennis asked his question, undoubtedly thinking of his time as Flowey.

Denis took that as an okay to continue. "So anyways you do anything heroic yet? Run into any villains?" The other seemed to actually take interest in that question and looked at them.

Asriel shook his head. "Nuh-uh. Though I did meet a pretty glowing flying lady, and she gave me a ride on her back for a while, and that was fun."

That raised a few eyebrows, Dennis asking, "Pretty lady? One of the New Wave?" Taylor thought about that for a second as to who they hitched a ride on before realizing who Asriel was talking about.

' _Asriel, probably should have said this earlier. Her name's Purity and she's an ex-racist supervillain that may or may not be trying to be a hero.'_ She hurriedly explained to Asriel in their head.

Asriel was quiet for a moment, seeming to think on what she said, before saying "I don't think so." Asriel shrugged. "She wore all white, and glowed white as well, particularly her hair and eyes. She was really nice. Came by while I was practicing my powers down at the Docks, and after some talking offered me a ride closer to home." ' _She was nice when we interacted with her.'_ Asriel thought to her, ' _And we didn't do anything wrong in interacting with her. So it should be fine.'_

Miss Militia spoke up. "That sounds like Purity." Please don't let this get them in any trouble.

Dennis blinked and leaned back and away from them in surprise. "I was just joking about the villain thing."

Carlos shook his head at his teammate. "Word is Purity is trying to turn over a new leaf. I wouldn't be surprised she'd help somebody that looks like a cape kid in the middle of the Docks." Inwardly Taylor sighed, the fact she didn't make friends with a confirmed villain being re-assuring.

"Oh." Dennis said. "Well that's not as bad… she was nice?" He asked incredulously. "Last I heard she worked for the Empire Eighty-eight."

"Yeah. She asked a question or two about my powers, and then offered me a ride home. Even did a few loops and twirls for fun! It was awesome! I wish I could fly." He stated wistfully at the memory.

Militia tilted her head. "Well I guess that kind of shows that Purity is at least trying to be better."

Dennis chuckled and nudged Carlos. "So the new member is making friends with ex-villains, is going to be stronger than our team leader and a better brute all done in the few days we've known her."

"Strength isn't a match for experience Dennis." Carlos said with a frown. "And we don't know when she talked to Purity."

"Pffff..." He waved away Carlos' objection. "Why don't you prove that then, or are you afraid of a little kid?"

Carlos glared at his compatriot. "I'm not afraid." He looked at them with a smile. "How about it then, wanna have a little sparring session?"

"Sure!" Asriel happily replied, sliding out of the chair. "Where to?" Were they really about to spar with Aegis?

They all stood up, with Carlos nodding to the elevator. "A few levels down is the sparring area. Nice and spacious for us to practice." Yup they were about to spar with him.

"Lead the way."

With that Carlos walked over to the elevator, everyone following behind him and piling into it before he pushed the button. Vista sighed behind them. "Leave it to Dennis to rope you into screwing with Carlos."

"What? It's just a fun sparring session." Asriel asked in confusion.

"Yeah after Dennis poked fun at him about how even though he's been doing this for a few years now and is joking about how you can handle him no problem. It's our job to handle big bads every day so it's a bit of an insult saying that just cause you're stronger he loses." She said explaining to which Dennis grinned.

"Ain't nothing but some good ole' friendly banter." He said matter-of-factly, rocking forward on his tip-toes as the door opened. Carlos was the first out into the room, everyone else leaving before they did. The room was massive, the ceiling going at least thirty feet into the air, the walls to either side wide apart enough to fit over a dozen cars between them and the length a third of a football field. "Anyways welcome to the sparring room."

"Kinda small." Asriel said, looking around. Taylor had no idea what he was talking about, it was pretty big for being in the middle of Downtown, without taking up much space in the neighborhood. It might be underground even.

Carlos raised a brow as he stretched his arms up above his head. "Used to practicing in open spaces like the Docks?"

"Kinda. I mean, I guess it's plenty of room if I'm not using my m- Blaster abilities. But otherwise, it would get crowded kinda fast. It would be easy to box the other person in. Assuming they don't have Blaster abilities as well, of course."

Miss Militia answered. "Most people don't have Blaster abilities like yours and even if they did, we have to be prepared for situations like that. Sometimes we are forced to fight people in close quarters, other times in the middle of the street and for that case we do have Missy. She's doubled the size of the room before because Dennis had wanted to try something new with his paper."

He sighed. "Yeah it didn't work like I wanted. No need to worry about it getting cramped though."

"Alrighty. So how do you want to do it? Just physical abilities, or all of our powers?"

Carlos shrugged. "I was going to ask you honestly. Flying makes it kind of cheap sometimes," He said floating up a foot of the air. "But you can shoot fire which kind of counters it. I don't mind either way."

"I guess with powers. It's how we are going to be fighting the villains after all." He waved his hand and several flames came into existence, but they felt different, Asriel didn't do nearly as much shaping to them as he usually did. "I will use these instead of my normal flames, completely harmless and would just phase right through you. You will feel it though, so you know when you are hit. Don't want to hurt you any, even if you are really tough. Sound good?"

Carlos nodded an affirmative. "We can do that."

He floated up a bit more as Miss Militia said, "I'll be the judge of whoever wins the sparring session then, tell either of you when one of you has lost. Vista if you could?" Suddenly the room seemed to triple in size, the others all taking a single step back and were instantly several dozen feet away. Carlos' flight carried him to the far end of the room in a few seconds before he turned to face them once more. "Both of you ready?" Miss Militia called out.

"Whenever Taylor is." Carlos said with a half-smile.

Instead of saying anything, Asriel just smiled competitively, and dozens of flames appeared around him and started racing towards Aegis. He flew under and in between the flames, rocketing towards them with his arms tucked to his sides. Asriel responded to that by bringing his hands up, a wall of fire twenty feet high flashing into existence in front of them, before rushing towards Aegis' position. Asriel didn't stop at that though, another dozen balls of fire slowly floating around them, waiting for something.

Taylor could see his plan before he did it, Aegis flying over the top of the flaming wall with over half the distance closed between them, eyes widened in surprise as Asriel shot the dozen balls of fire at him. One grazed him but the rest flew past him as he twirled through it, his progress barely slowed by any of it, still coming in fast. Again their hands went up, their right one forming an O in front of their mouth. Then he blew, a fountain of fire erupting from their mouth forcing Aegis to abandon his approach lest he be engulfed by fire.

Asriel stopped the column of flame and brought out another dozen balls of fire, sending them flying out at the moment his flames died off, not giving him a single moment of rest. The distance between them had increased thanks to Asriel's flames, the balls of fire serving to keep him dancing from spot to spot, the balls of fire that missed him hanging in the air and further hampering his movements. Their right hand went up above their head as Asriel channeled more magic into their palm, left hand serving to shoot more fireballs at Aegis. With all the floating fireballs and the ones that Asriel was shooting it was severely limiting his ability to dodge.

The magic Asriel had gathered into their hand stopped flowing and he threw it forward, it glowing brighter and more intensely than any others as it flew towards Aegis. He moved out of the way of course, it was only a little bit bigger than all the other ones, moving only a little faster. But it was never meant to touch him she thought, when Asriel raised their hand and tightened it into a fist, the new fireball suddenly exploding outwards in a bright flash, it almost immediately encompassing him.

Bright orange, red and yellow it stayed there for a moment in a perfect orb, then disappearing in its entirety leaving one confused Aegis near the edge of it. Miss Militia clarified for him. "And Azriel wins the sparring match!"

Carlos blinked in confusion before lowering himself down to the ground, Dennis laughing from the sidelines, one second seeming far away then right next to them thanks to Missy altering the distance. "I was joking about you guys beating him, I didn't expect you to actually do it!"

Asriel shrugged, smiling. "I had the advantage of range, as well as area denial. I'm sure that in a field not so open and with clear lines of sight, Aegis probably could have blindsided me."

Carlos glared at Dennis who was still laughing, Missy smiling too now. "I'll admit that I did not expect anywhere close to that amount of fire. Most of the time when somebody can level a building they shoot slow, not rapid like that." He dropped the glare on his teammates and chuckled, extending a fist to them. "I'm really looking forward to having you on my team now."

Fistbumping him, Asriel replied "Can't wait to join."

Carlos turned to Dennis. "Well we've shown that Taylor can handle me, so how about you Dennis? See how our jokester matches up against our newest member."

He hurriedly shook his head and held up his hands in mock surrender. "Nuh-uh man, ate some Taco Hut stuff earlier, isn't sitting well with me. Spent the entire time in the bathroom."

Vista looked up at him. "I thought you were taking a shower?"

"Nope." He stated. "How about one of our other two current companions spars with her?" He suggested, taking the attention away from himself.

Miss Militia shook her head. "Let's not tire her out today. Besides today was a day for her to learn more from you Wards, can't spend the entire time sparring with each other."

Dennis crossed his arms behind his head. "S'how about we go back to our room then, I don't feel like standing around the whole time." The rest of their group agreed with him and as one they went back to the elevator and rode up to the Wards' room.


	9. More Learning

Taylor stood outside the entrance to Arcadia High's grounds, looking at the prestigious high school that housed the Wards. Standing four stories high it was two actual buildings, combined by a single cross piece. She'd been wanting to transfer here for the longest time, but just today was she getting what she wanted. It almost made her feel glad that those three had been such bitches to her. Almost. Bringing her backpack further up onto her shoulder she let out a happy sigh.

 _Golly, that's a lot of people.'_ Asriel said in awe.

Looking back at the people filing into the school she nodded and sort of moved forward to join the flood, staying near the back as the bell rang and they all started going in. ' _Schools a lot smaller where you're from?'_

' _Maybe, I haven't ever been to school.'_

She slowed down slightly, but kept walking. ' _Never been to school? Why not, surely you had schools in the Underground.'_

' _Well, yeah, but I was home-schooled. My mom taught me mostly, and when she was too busy Old Man Gerson or Dr Ga-'_ Asriel suddenly stopped and was quiet for a moment. ' _Ga-, Ga-, why can't I remember his name? I know it starts with Ga-. Gallow? Gabriel? No...'_ He said to himself, sounding really confused.

Finally entering into the front of the school after the flood of students she looked at the piece of paper she had telling her which room numbers each class of hers was in, school only lasting half a day thanks to her almost Ward status. ' _You alright?'_

' _Yeah, I just. Can't. Remember. I know everyone in the Underground! Why can't I remember the name of the Royal Scientist?'_ He said, starting to sound frustrated.

Casting a look to the right and left, looking at the placards with a series of numbers to indicate which rooms were where she was supposed to go for first period. ' _Hey it's alright to forget a few things, maybe he wasn't somebody all that interesting or something'_ She suggested, slightly worried because this was the first time he actually seemed angry at something.

' _He was the Royal Scientist! He invented The Core, which provided the power needed for all of the modern conveniences! He was one of my three main teachers! On top of that, I know_ _ **everyone**_ _in the underground, how can I not know his name, or even what happened to him to give way to Alphys?'_

He was getting really frustrated at the fact he couldn't remember the third person, which was definitely not a good thing. Deciding it'd be a good idea to change subjects as she walked past other students who were hanging out at their lockers she asked, ' _So what's The Core, never heard of that before.'_

' _A giant geo-thermal power plant, designed to convert thermal energy into magical energy.'_ He said distractedly, probably still thinking on the Doctor.

Finding the room number that was before hers she looked at the other door just a little bit down the hall as the last of the students started filing into their classrooms and headed towards it. She was also a bit curious as to how heat could mean magic. ' _How's that supposed to work? Heat to magic?'_ She paused and added on with a half-smile. ' _Can we do that too?'_

' _Oh, it's an engineering marvel. Took me forever to fully understand how it works.'_ He said, finally turning his attention fully onto it. ' _It works by channeling the heat energy up through conductive pylons, which condense the energy and transport it to the Calor Conversus, and there it…"_ He quickly began using more and more words and jargon Taylor had no idea what they meant, and ended up only being able to understand maybe every third word. She was almost ready to interrupt him to say it'd bee a good idea for him to draw some of it out or something, when the bell rang and interrupted her thoughts, and his rambling. It also made her realize she'd been standing still when he got more in-depth with his explanation. ' _What was that?'_ He asked.

Hurrying the rest of the way to the room she said, ' _Pretty sure that's the bell saying we're late to class.'_ Coming to the door she double-checked the number on the paper against the one beside the it and confirmed it was the right room. Slipping into the room she looked it over, seeing a few free desks near the back and headed towards it, the teacher glancing at her. He wore a plaid shirt and jeans, a five'o clock shadow seeming to emphasize the fact he was a bit overweight behind his desk.

He kept her from sitting with a wave of his hand, asking, "Taylor right?" She nodded. "Have a few papers for you since you missed a week of school, let you catch up in your lessons." He said holding out a small stack of papers, but not making a move towards her. She walked over and took them, flipping through them really quick. "Just find a free seat, hands the papers in by the end of the week and get ready for the lesson." He turned around to the chalkboard behind him and the class quieted down as he picked it up.

Moving to the back of the class, half-waving to the three people that said hi or waved at her, she sat down and dumped her backpack beside her. Pulling out a pencil and notebook she readied herself for the lesson, the teacher already writing out the math lesson on the chalk-board.

' _So you have a different teacher for every subject?'_ Asriel asked curiously.

' _Yeah, it's supposed to be because each specializes in one subject so we can learn better. Doesn't really help with most of the students.'_ She added on as an afterthought glancing at a classmate a few desks over busy messing with his phone.

' _I suppose it has it's upsides, especially since you can teach more students with less teachers this way. Though I don't see how they would be able to meaningfully connect what you are learning between various subjects.'_ Asriel replied thoughtfully.

She shrugged, copying the diagram the teacher had made into her notebook. ' _It all works out I guess seeing how we've been doing this for so long. Your mom combine different areas into one lesson then I take it?'_

' _Yeah. Though, I guess most people don't need to learn as much about Economics and the like as my mom taught me.'_

Right he was the prince so of course he'd be taught a lot of things like that. ' _So what do you know from homeschooling?'_

' _From homeschooling? Well, I had to memorize the multiplication tables up to twenty, I learned a fair bit about monster history and my family, learned the basics of economics and different trade systems, the basics on monster physiology, I think that's it.'_

That sounded like a lot, though he did say he was stuck in a timeloop, speaking of.. ' _What else did you learn because of the timeloop, I imagine you might have read a lot during then.'_

He started to list off ' _Science, History, Math, Sociology, Economics, Physiology, Psychology, Architecture, Language, Music, Botany, Geology, I had a lot of time on my hands. … or, leaves.'_

Looking up at the chalkboard and finding herself a slight bit lost from missing a week she wondered how much of math he knew. ' _Would math include what he's talking about?'_

' _Yeah, that stuff is simple.'_ Asriel replied confidently.

She rolled her eyes with a smile. ' _Mind being my cheat sheet for right now?'_

' _Taylor… you're suppose to learn this stuff yourself.'_ He said in a slight scolding tone.

' _Hey I missed school for a week and this isn't something we covered while I was there. Just need a bit of help from the friendly voice in my head to catch up.'_ She explained, as the teacher erased the diagram and started writing out problems for them to solve.

' _I can help you, but I can't give you the answers. Do you know how to do this bit?'_ Her eyes drifted of his accord to one part of the first problem.

' _Yeah, but how do you…'_

* * *

The bell rang, signalling the end of class and when you should gather your things to leave, but half of the students had already been packed and ready to leave for the next, their assignments half-finished and turned into homework. She on the other hand got up and turned it into the teacher then left to the next class already pulling out the paper from earlier for her next class, that one being history. If she remembered the numbers right from when she walked into the school, it was on the opposite side of the building.

With nobody to talk to and busy brushing past the crowds she asked, ' _How much do you know about human history? You have your own down but I don't remember you mentioning much about humans.'_

' _I know a fair bit about Human History, but not nearly as much because all information about the outside world since we were sealed away had to find it's way down to the Underground, usually via trash. But, even with that, I know the humans from my dimension, I honestly have no idea how your history might compare.'_

' _Your knowledge of human history is from trash?'_ She asked with a slight chuckle, half-imagining all the types of things people would throw away that could be considered history if one didn't know better.

' _Yeah, nothing could leave the Underground, remember? The Barrier kept us trapped down there, things could enter but nothing could leave. So we had to make do with what found it's way down there. The invention of the Radio helped, but Humans only broadcasted so much over the radio, and we were having to reverse engineer stuff from the trash, so the quality wasn't all that great.'_ Asriel explained.

"Eyo Taylor!" A familiar voice called out before she could respond, making her turn towards smiled when she saw Dennis walking towards them, backpack slung over his shoulder with a smile. Coming up next to her he asked, "How's Arcadia High, lot better than that old one right?"

She nodded as he started walking beside her. "Well I don't have a couple of girls harassing me so that's good." His expression changed, for just an instant he looked worried and then as quick as it had come, it was gone, back to his already familiar smile. It made her wonder if she'd just imagined it.

"Yeah well that's definitely a plus, so what class you have then?" She handed him the paper and he took it. "Oh hey you've got class with the one guy you haven't met yet." He said with a wink, not saying Wards because they weren't in costume. Which meant she was about to finally meet Kid Win. "Just look for the guy with brown hair near the windows, he likes to zone out sometimes."

What about Shadow Stalker, she'd yet to meet her. "And the other girl?"

Dennis blinked. "Oh yeah she transferred to another place." She nodded, briefly wondering why Shadow Stalker had been transferred, as he jogged in the opposite direction they'd been walking, obviously having gone the wrong way just to talk to her. Resuming the trip to class she went back to the earlier line of discussion. ' _So couldn't use magic to listen to human stuff?'_

' _Nothing could leave The Barrier, not even magic. Not even with use of Shortcuts.'_

' _But everything came in easy huh… that's a weird barrier, sounds like it was meant to fall eventually.'_

' _It lasted for a couple millenia. The only way out didn't arrive till the last decade.'_ Asriel responded dryly.

' _I'm just saying that if they wanted to keep you down there, why make it so things can pass through? You couldn't have ever gotten out if the barrier worked both ways. No offense meant by any of this of course.'_

' _It was not an intentional design feature. The Barrier does not work like a wall, but… I guess the easiest comparison would be a black hole. There was no way out, period, but designing such a space is not possible without having a way in. The only way out is to become something that never existed before, a human/monster fusion.'_

She thought back to the info dump he'd given her before and Chara. Wincing slightly at the memory she apologized, ' _Right sorry, just don't know about magic so I might sound a bit insensitive buddy.'_

' _It's alright, you didn't mean anything by it.'_ He replied gently as they came to their destination.

' _Still sorry.'_ She was glad though that it didn't seem he could read her thoughts or vice versa, thinking of Chara probably not being a good thing if he could. Turning her attention back to the class she let her eyes rove over the class before settling on the teenager sitting near the windows with brown hair like Dennis had said. He looked sort of youthful as if he hadn't really grown that much and just a slight bit pale. Stopping at the teacher's desk to grab some more papers to catch up she went over to sit behind him, grabbing his attention.

With a curious look he turned to her. "Hey?"

Holding out a hand she said, "I'm Taylor."

A flash of recognition and he smiled, taking her hand. "Chris, nice to meet ya, been hearing a lot from the rest of the gang. So can you really do what Dennis says you can?" He asked, apparently with the same thinking as Carlos had, to which she nodded. His eyes widened in slight surprise. "Never would have expected that, anyways welcome to Mrs. Wilson's history class, where almost everybody passes because she doesn't' seem to care sometimes."

She looked up to the black-haired, thin teacher who was busy reading a book behind her desk, an unopened energy drink beside her. "Really?"

He shrugged, turning back around as the bell rung and Mrs. Wilson snapped her book shut. "If you look like you're paying attention you get a sixty from that alone, get half the points on everything else and you can still pass."

Mrs. Wilson begun the lesson with, "Alright class pull out your history books or read off of a friend's if you forgot it again, I'm looking at you Dez." She added on with an accusing glance to one of the girls on the opposite side of the room who just rolled her eyes. "Let's start with reading pages 120-127 then start a discussion with a partner about what you believe caused the Great Depression."

Chris looked at Taylor and gestured to the history book he had. "Going to guess you don't have yours yet huh?" She shook her head which made him turn fully around in his seat and place the book sideways between them. "Alright we'll share then, being buddy buddy and all."

She could feel Asriel perk up in her head, and her eyes twitched to the first paragraph. He apparently was interested. ' _Well someone's interested.'_

' _Oh, uh, sorry.'_ He said self-consciously, his control receding from her eyes.

' _Hey at least one of us seems to like it.'_ She commented, resuming their reading with a half-smile.

* * *

With the bell ringing she waved bye to Chris, already headed to the next class. Looking down at her paper she saw science was the next one she was going to, again on the other side of the building according to the numbers. Why was she being forced from one end of the school to another? A stray thought crossed her mind about science, namely Asriel mentioning something to Miss Militia a day before. ' _Hey Asriel what were those things you were offering to Miss Militia?'_

' _Gaster Blasters. High Grade Magical Weaponry, kinda like artificial Soul Weapons, but only good for direct blasts of magical power.'_ He explained.

' _An artificial Soul Weapon? Isn't that one of the more powerful things you said people could do?'_ She asked walking around the clusters of teenagers in the halls.

' _Yeah, only two people in the Underground could use them, those being Sans and Papyrus. Their creation and binding process are rather complicated, beyond anything Alphys was currently working on.'_

' _Sans is the timecop right, makes sense he might have some good weapons. Who's Papyrus though?'_

' _Sans' brother. Really upbeat guy, always tried to be my friend, and no what I did, he always believed the best in me.'_ Asriel replied, sounding a tad ashamed.

' _Oh was he a timecop too?'_ She asked.

' _I_ think _so. Really, with how loud and open he was, he was surprisingly hard to get a straight answer out of. And I have no idea why Sans would have brought him along, if he wasn't his partner or something, Sans thinks the world of him and would never do anything that might endanger him.'_

Nodding she brushed past another group of people. ' _So how do they compare to actual soul weapons?'_

' _Well, they aren't as powerful for one, nor as efficient. Though they have much better range abilities than Soul Weapons, they also have much less versatility, they are only good for outputting large blasts of power, nothing else.'_

Tapping her chin in thought she asked, ' _Is it like magic technology, a construct of magic like our fire, some other magic thing I don't know of yet?'_

' _It's technology. You have to build it, can't just form one one the fly. I think it would take me maybe a week to make one, having to design it and figure out how to make it out of the materials available here.'_ Asriel replied, voice taking on a thoughtful tone as he undoubtedly began contemplating what exactly he'd have to do.

' _Sounds like it might be a good idea to have those just in case then considering some of the villains running around until we can manage to learn, or in your case get used to, our magic. Is a week slow or fast for magic technology things?'_ She asked, hopping up the stairs to head to the third level.

' _I guess it's kinda fast. I'm pretty sure only Alphys, Sans, or the old Royal Scientist could match it. Alphys actually was able to make a cell phone that could turn into a jet-pack, access the user's dimensional boxes, and shoot harmless lasers in a couple hours.'_

She tripped over the last stair and fell on her hands, prompting a few of the students beside her to ask if she was alright. Taking a moment to wave them away and assuring them that she was fine before asking Asriel, ' _Can we do that stuff too?'_

' _Well, yeah? Besides the time frame she made it in, such things were not unusual in the Underground. Do you not have phones that can do that here?'_

' _No. Not at all. How big was the cell phone? Like a lunchbox size, enough to fit in the palm of my hand?'_ She asked coming to the science hallway and finally nearing her next class.

' _It could fit in your hand fairly easily. Maybe not the palm of it, but it wouldn't be much bigger than your hand. Most people had a version that could connect to their Dimensional Boxes, because of how handy they were, and kept it on them at all times.'_ She walked into the classroom while Asriel added on, ' _How do you access your Boxes? Do you have to go to the Box itself?'_

' _We don't have Boxes…. Not dimensional ones anyways…. you remember that list I mentioned we should get you to write right?'_ She asked taking the papers from the teacher and heading to the back of the class. ' _I think we should start writing that now before you make me trip down some stairs or something.'_ She said pulling out her notebook and jumping to somewhere in the middle of her notebook.

' _Oh, um, sure. Just write everything?'_

' _Anything remotely magical no matter how insignificant you think we could do or make or the like. More I know now, the better prepared we are right?'_

' _Um, alright.'_ He said, sounding hesitant for some reason, but he took control of her hand, and started writing. He immediately jumped right into explaining the nature of magic, the power of the soul, using very basic terms. It almost sounded like a textbook.

' _Is this how you normally write things? Looks like something I'd see in a school.'_ She idly commented.

He didn't skip a beat in his writing, barely slowing down to respond. ' _Um, no. But you want me to write down everything magic can do, and this is the only way I can think of doing it. Starting with the basics so you, and others, can understand later topics. I'm currently just writing down the basic textbook on Magic Science that they teach in the first year of middle school, when they begin actually teaching about the nature of magic rather than just doing extremely basic overviews, and control exercises.'_

He already filled up the first page, and flipped it to continue on the next, both that and the fact he said he was writing an actual textbook out making her blink in surprise. ' _You memorized a textbook and are currently writing it for me?'_

' _Well, yeah? I offered to do it earlier, so you wouldn't have to put up with me.'_ He said, taking a break from writing to sketch a picture of a heart, and then annotating parts of it.

' _I expected you to write your own thoughts and experiences and stuff for that honestly. Not a memorized series of textbooks.'_ She said, watching her hands just be a blur of activity in writing out a book.

' _There's a lot of ground to cover, and the basics are already rather well explained in these textbooks, so I wouldn't have to recall ways to explain it, and possibly risk overlooking something, or assuming you possess knowledge you don't. Though I probably would have done that for the later stuff, there not being textbooks on it. That, and probably a second book more on control exercises and techniques, for when you want just practical knowledge, how to do something rather than why it works that way, with annotations leading you to the relevant parts of the first book.'_ He explained, moving onto page five. ' _I'm pretty sure this note-book isn't big enough though.'_

' _If I would've known you were writing out a whole book I would have taken us to a computer or something. I thought you'd just write some long list of magic things you know because I would've gotten a few more notebooks otherwise.'_

She felt her face form into a thoughtful frown and he actually paused in his writing. ' _You can't just list everything magic can do. It'd be like- like-'_ He said, waving her hand trying to think of a comparison. ' _Like listing everything electricity can do, that's how you power most of your appliances right? Any list one attempts to make would be a gross over simplification.'_

' _Simplification is okay for right now, it's a brief brief overview. Gives me the idea of what is possible and impossible, which I can learn more about with you, the guy who's currently writing a textbook. Seriously how do you memorize a textbook?'_

He sighed in her head. ' _You said you wanted everything you could do, every little thing, no matter how insignificant. As for memorizing, I had a lot of time, and nothing better to do. As I said, I have read every book in the underground.'_

' _Reading a textbook and memorizing it is totally different. But sorry about the confusion with writing it out, just kind of expected you to know what I meant. You know since we've been constantly aware of the other for a week now.'_ Taking a breath in slightly annoyed with herself she clarified on what she wanted. ' _What I meant is what we could do either physically or make, like maybe shoot ice like we do with fire, maybe fly like you asked Purity, make cell phone jetpacks, or armor or whatever else I'm not mentioning.'_

' _And to cover all that, without missing anything, I'd need to do this.'_ He said, waving at the beginning to a textbook in her journal. ' _Seriously, Magic can do a lot. Monster-kind has spent the last few millennia finding out how to do stuff with it. If you are fine with missing stuff, I could do the list.'_

' _How much stuff would I be missing, because looking at this it seems like I'd be missing the explanations, which you're here to help me out with.'_

' _I don't know, that's the point. It is impossible to itemize everything Magic can do, and as such, it's impossible to find out what would be missing from that list. I can tell you the stuff that I think would be the most relevant, but that would of course mean that there is all of the stuff that I just didn't think would come up. Like removing impurities in water, I know for a spell for that, but odds are it won't ever be needed, and wouldn't come to me when listing things you would want to know for your heroing career.'_ He said with growing frustration.

Also starting to get frustrated she responded, ' _Just write the list for now then we can get to all the other stuff down the line. This is just for me, maybe the Protectorate people if I think they need it.'_

' _Alright, that's why I asked earlier.'_ He responded moodily, moving the pencil to a new page and starting writing a list, starting with the Colored Magics, and what each one can do.

She stayed silent for a few moments, not sure what to say with both of them getting into a slight mood thanks to her confusing question before deciding to ask about the flight. He always seemed to feel better when he talked. ' _So can we fly? You seemed to think that was a thing with Purity.'_

He paused slightly in his list writing, before he continued ' _I'm not sure. I never was able to figure out how to do it, but I was also working with a very small supply of magic. I did it when I became god, but I wasn't even trying to at the time, I just did. We could mimic flight with Blue Magic, having ourselves fall up or whatever, but that wouldn't be true flight.'_

' _Alright.'_ Feeling it'd be a good idea to keep talking she asked, ' _So what type of Colored Magic did you use a lot?'_

' _I actually didn't use them that often.'_ Asriel replied, before hesitantly continuing. ' _They, um, made it too easy.'_

Pausing about what he might mean by it being too easy she thought back to what he did in the past. ' _Ah… well what Color would you say is best for us?'_

Their eyes darted across the mostly completed list of Colored Magics before he answered ' _Blue or Purple might be good. Both help detain criminals, and Blue gives us more maneuverability in combat. Though… Green would also be really useful, to help anyone who might be caught in the crossfire.'_

' _I like the idea of screwing around with Gravity.'_ She looked to the Purple one, having a idea of what Red might be, but asking anyways. ' _Red is what exactly?'_

' _Red is DETERMINATION…. Should I list it?'_ He asked hesitantly, for an obvious reason when she thought about it. Something that for them to figure out would require them to die, which even Asriel wasn't sure they could do anymore.

' _Yeah no let's not list that.'_

' _Alright.'_ He said, continuing the list, starting with a small section on Soul Weapons next.

' _What'd your family use though?'_ Surely they used Colored Magic, with them being King and Queen of Monsters.

' _Well, my Mother knew some Green, but beyond that they mostly used Yellow and Orange, those magics coming most naturally to Boss Monsters.'_

' _So did anybody know Blue during your time there?'_ She asked watching him move onto Magic Tech.

' _Sans and Papyrus were the two main ones, but there were a couple others.'_

' _So there was at least one person or Monster that knew one type of Colored Magic then?'_

' _Currently, yeah. There is usually a couple monsters every generation who, even if they don't hold any interest in learning the magic for it's own sake, are interested in not letting the knowledge die out. I think there are a few people who do stuff like that with languages in the Human World.'_

' _There is.'_ She stated watching him write. ' _How long would you say for us to learn Blue Magic?'_

' _I'm… honestly not sure. While you are learning at a greatly accelerated rate, you are still learning just the basics. It could be a number of years, or it might just be a month.'_

She balked when she read the words Soul Container go down on the list. ' _We can put people's Souls in boxes? Really?'_

He paused in his writing to answer. ' _Yeah, monsters had to find a way to preserve the Human Souls after collecting them as they fell into the Underground, since while their souls do persist for a time after death they only last a couple minutes usually, not the years they were expecting to wait. Though it's more of a glass tube than a box.'_

' _W-were they… were they conscious while being stuck in a tube?'_ Considering all the talking about Souls and how it related to them, it was a bit of a horrifying thought.

' _I don't believe so… it wasn't till a fair bit into my fight with Frisk before they started doing things on their own. Maybe they went into a sorta coma? I could never find the souls before Frisk came along, and monster kind didn't even think that Humans might retain some sentience after death. It was sure a surprise to both of us when Chara was still alive in me.'_ He replied, and continued writing.

' _Just kind of a disturbing thought to me…'_ She admitted. ' _Being stuck like that with nothing to do, able to do nothing.'_ She shivered at that, not quite noticing the next line he wrote, but realizing it in a few moments. ' _And we can make them bodies?'_ She asked incredulously.

' _Yeah, Alphys made one for Mettaton, as part of an experiment with souls and potentially creating a artificial soul, which ultimately lead to me. Mettaton was a ghost, so it was possible to actually get at his soul unlike normal monsters. So while such a procedure wouldn't be possible with most monsters, we can probably do it with human souls.'_ He replied casually, like it's no big deal.

They could make it so people lived after they died? She didn't like that thought, thinking about how many people out there that might try to take advantage of that, along with the fact of people knowing they could live after it all. ' _Errr let's not list that one either.'_

' _Huh? Why not?'_ He asked, but he was already in the process of erasing it.

' _For you it's normal news, nothing to be excited about. For all of humanity, the idea of somebody that can make it so they live after they die, effectively make them immortal? No that isn't a good idea if I plan on sharing this list with anybody.'_ She explained.

' _If you say so.'_ He didn't sound convinced, but was at least willing to believe her.

After he finished erasing the Robot line she looked at the Soul Container. ' _Let's go ahead and erase this one too.'_

' _Alrighty.'_ He said, continuing to erase. ' _Probably should rewrite the list that we are going to turn in, if they look kinda closely they can clearly tell we erased something, which would raise some questions.'_

' _Uh yeah we'll write a different one for others to have instead then.'_ She agreed looking at the lead smudges on the paper. They were both snapped back to the rest of reality as the bell rang for the next class, making her wonder as to how time flew by. Standing up and gathering her things she went to leave, only for the teacher to hold them back for a moment.

"I do hope our newest student doesn't plan to catch up by scribbling in her notebook all through my class." She offered him a sheepish grin and slipped out of the classroom for the next class.

Striding past her peers she turned her attention to Asriel again. ' _Souls are an easy thing for Monsters to talk about as a thing, but for humans… well it'd screw with some people's minds I think.'_

' _Why? What's so confusing about souls?'_ Asriel asked confused.

Taking a peek at the paper for the next class, it being English, she hurried to it. ' _Humans are very… set in their views. We've fought entire wars over the ideas of Souls and religion. If we were to ever mention the fact that they're very real things, proving some fanatics right…. Well I don't exactly think the best of what they might do.'_ She confided.

' _Huh. Humans are weird.'_

' _Yeah…. So you get my point?'_

' _Kinda. Just seems weird to think that people don't know about souls, but I guess that's possible if magic isn't a normal thing in Human Society.'_

' _It's not. Sure it's sort of talked about in stories or old legends, but it's generally accepted that magic is something that doesn't exist.'_ She said. ' _They've even managed to explain powers and refuse to call it anything like magic. Those who do, are generally ignored or made fun of.'_

' _Like I said, Humans are weird.'_

' _No argument from me.'_ She said whilst heading back down the stairs, another question forming in her mind. ' _If you err… don't mind me asking… what was Chara like?'_

His voice took on a nostalgic quality as he answered. ' _She was really shy and scared at first, but as she got use to the Underground she grew to be rather bold and outspoken. She really like chocolate, enjoyed gardening and drawing with me, and was pretty much the best friend I could ask for.'_

' _Was she anything like what you might have expected a human to be?'_ She asked curiously.

' _I- I really don't know. I didn't think about Humans much before hand, being kinda of just a fable to me back then, hearing about them only from stories of long ago. So I didn't really have many expectations when I met her, it took me noticing her bleeding to even realize that she was a Human, rather a kind of Monster I haven't met yet.'_

' _Well I'm guessing nobody really cared what species she was did they?'_

' _Well… a few people did. But Mother quickly corrected them. A large number of monsters actually hated humans, thought of them as sort of a Boogeyman. But they believed in Mom and Dad, so when they said that not all Humans were bad, they believed them… which is part of the reason why my Dad was forced to declare war after I died.'_ He finished sadly.

She quirked her lips trying to think of what might get them off this topic, realizing a bit late where it was going. Yet she couldn't think of any other topics to go to. ' _...Sorry for bringing it up.'_

' _No need to apologize. It is my past, and nothing will change it.'_

' _Yeah…'_ She said walking into her final class for the day and grabbing more review papers when a thought came to mind. ' _Want to hear about what my life's been like since I know yours?'_ She asked sliding into her desk, pulling out the list and putting it onto the table.

' _You don't have to.'_ He replied, but she could feel he was interested.

Ignoring the teacher starting the english lesson she said, ' _Well my dad is in charge of trying to restore the Docks, always trying to keep people's hopes up while they're trying to make a living. My mom was an English teacher in college, really liked the flute."_ She let out a sigh. ' _I used to keep her flute with me all the time but those bitches back at Winslow stole it just to get to me. Funny thing is one of them used to be my friend but over the summer she decided to ditch me and torment me later._

' _I didn't really have many friends beside her and those that I did have, disappeared quickly after that fact.'_ She paused to think of what else to add.

They were both silent for a moment, before Asriel asked ' _Did you ever learn to play the flute?'_

' _Uh a bit. Not the best but I could play a tune or two. Why?'_ She wasn't expecting him to ask about the flute of all the things she'd mentioned thus far.

' _If you want, we could play something later.'_ He asked hopefully.

' _I uh don't have a flute anymore. Or really any instruments… why do you play something?'_ If he could memorize a textbook it'd make sense that he could play some type of instrument.

She could feel him smirk in her head. ' _Don't worry about not having a instrument. As for what I play, well, that's a secret. You're just going to have to wait.'_

She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. ' _I don't get how I'm supposed to play without a flute… it's got something to do with magic doesn't it?'_ She asked with a slight smile.

' _I said don't worry about it. Trust in your good pal Asriel.'_


	10. A New Image

AN: Got some links for you folks this time, just remove the space beside the . and it should work.

Taylor leaned against the window, watching the buildings go by, the PRT van full of her teammates driving them all back to the HQ, all of whom were busy talking and joking with each other. She didn't join in because one she felt slightly tired and two she was trying her best to understand what Asriel was saying about Pocket dimensions.'-accessing this other-space, and stabilizing it allowing for the storage of non-living material, the void being extremely hostile to life. Now the exact location of-' Needless to say she was having some trouble understanding it.

Before Asriel could go much farther she finally noticed that they weren't going past any more buildings and were in fact inside one. When'd that happen? The other Wards were already unbuckling themselves from their seats in the van, laughing at some joke she hadn't been paying attention to. Asriel quieted, noticing her attention drifting away from him. Carlos turned towards her with a grin. "So how's the first day at Arcadia High?"

She smiled softly and shrugged, unbuckling herself and following after the Wards as they exited the van. "It was a lot better then Winslow." That garnered a few smiles from the others, Dennis giving her a thumbs up.

"Guess the low part of your life was at Winslow huh?" Dennis asked, getting a smirk from Chris while the others rolled their eyes.

She chuckled at that stupid little joke, stepping out into the garage and looking over the PRT vans lining up and down the walls. Maybe half a dozen. "That's a horrible joke and you know it." Dennis shrugged with a toothy grin. Just behind him she could see Armsmaster striding towards them already. They didn't get a moment's rest after school did they? She waved at him as he approached, the other Wards following her gaze.

Carlos cocked his head. "Hey what's up Armsmaster?"

"Just taking Taylor to the PR department." He said waving them along. Shrugging to the Wards and waving they followed Armsmaster back out of the garage. "You should probably turn into your Azriel form."

Nodding she did just that and started shifting, stepping through a door and into the same elevator as before. Then something came to mind as he pressed the button again and sent them moving. "Oh I also got him to write that list for you guys." She said slipping off her backpack and digging through it for the unaltered list, a different list than the one they had made originally so they wouldn't see the smudges.

Fishing it out she handed him their list, a single page that Asriel had neatly scribbled whatever he could think of. He took it and quickly read it over as she continued changing. "So… he thinks you're both a Tinker? One that can make," He looked at the paper again. "Dimensional Boxes. I'm assuming that has something to do with either pocket realities or some type of shrinking device?"

She paused at that. "He… uh said something about it being sub-dimensions and something else about layers. I could have him try to explain it for you? You might be able to understand what he's saying better than I do."

It was evident he was thinking it over as the elevator stopped at whatever level he picked. Before the doors opened he leaned over and pushed another button, apparently keeping the doors closed. "A brief overview would work until we can talk more later."

Nodding she gave a nudge to Asriel, that being his cue to explain to Armsmaster. "Dimensional boxes work by accessing a sub-dimension, a layer of reality between this dimension and others. The box creates a temporary stable link to a particular part of the sub-dimension, where objects can be stored and retrieved. The most convenient part of them, is that you can retrieve the items from any dimensional box, since they can all access the same space."

Armsmaster nodded. "You're capable of a more in-depth explanation though correct?"

"Of course." Asriel replied confidently.

"Good. Would be good if we could somehow replicate that. Would make getting supplies for myself much easier." He muttered more to himself than either of them, then turned his attention back to them. "Did you two decide whether or not to mention anything to your teammates regarding your predicament?"

It took her a second to figure out what he meant then she ran her claws over her head. "Actually neither of us mentioned anything to each other about the Wards."

Another nod from Armsmaster. "Alright then." Pressing the button on the elevator, the doors slid open to reveal their destination. "Well this is the PR department. Brenda and her daughter Lindsay will help you. I have to go talk to the Wards regarding a few new orders from the Director."

Nodding in acknowledgement she took a step out of the elevator and Armsmaster shut it behind her, heading back to the Wards to talk to them apparently. Opposite them all along the wall were sewing machines, lined up side by side. On the wall to their right was something from a movie, looking like it was from a conspiracy movie to be exact, cut out photos, magazines and other things pinned all over the wall, some circled and others crossed out. Unlike the movies, they were simply fashion articles or political things. On the left wall were fabrics and colors assorted into cabinets and plaques.

But she didn't see anybody. Another step forward and she finally realized that there were people in the room. Just directly to her left sitting at a desk together were apparently mother and daughter, both as african-americans, the mother wearing a pair of glasses and her hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing a suit. The daughter had her hair in dreadlocks down to the back of her neck and a green dress. Both looked up at her when she came into their view, abandoning their magazine that they had been looking at. "Oh hello there. You must be Azriel." Brenda stood up and walked over to them, offering a hand to shake. "I'm Brenda and this is my daughter Lindsey." She nodded to Lindsey who waved at them while still sitting on the desk.

"Uh hi." She shook the offered hand. "So what exactly do we do here?"

Lindsey answered. "We help everyone else design their costumes, change or offer advice on their names, talk to them about merchandise or talking to people on the TV. Public functions like school talks, picking up trash. Whatever helps somebody's image."

Taylor nodded as Brenda added, "So what we have today is talking about your outfit," She gestured at them. "Because no offense, a hero shouldn't look like a school-child. Then we have to talk about how the whole ABB color lights. Make sure we spell your name right for merchandise. See whether or not you want to do public things like school talks and shows."

"Uh alright. What first then?" She asked looking from mother to daughter.

Lindsey shrugged. "We can start out with your outfit if you want. We can talk about other things while doing that."

"Alright." With that the two PR workers led the way to the fabrics on the left wall.

Stopping near the wall the pair looked at her. "Is that what you normally wear or is that what clothes get on you when you change forms?"

"Uh it's what my form wears regardless of what I'm wearing beforehand." The pair exchanged a look and started circling her. It made her the slightest bit uncomfortable because it felt like their eyes were roaming over every inch of her.

'We might be able to change it.' Asriel reminded her.

Is that a maybe or can we actually do that?' She asked back as the mother daughter pair made their third circle around her.

'Don't know, I haven't tried yet. I'm sure we can eventually, but I don't know about right now.'

'Worth a try right now?'

'Sure.' He replied, before falling silent. She felt her fists clench, and their magic core twist and turn, and slowly their shirt turned purple, with a white symbol appearing on it, while their sleeves turned white as well. Once that was done, her fists relaxed, and he replied 'There, I can at least change our clothes.'

Switching her attention from the changed clothes to the two PR people she saw them both giving her a raised brow. "So I think I can change my clothes then."

The pair nodded to her then to each other. "How much can you alter your clothes?"

"Uhhhh." She replied. 'Think there's any limit to what you can do with this?' She asked taking the opportunity to look herself over, a light purple robe encompassing everything down from her torso, stopping just above their feet. A slight collar around their neck that was popped and the white symbol looking like a pair of wings on a blue background that stood proudly on their chest.

'I don't think so. Forms close to this one would be simpler, but I could get use to other outfits, and as such be able to change into them faster.'

"I think I could do a lot of altering to my clothes." The pair shared another nod.

"Any reason you picked that combination of clothes and colors?" Brenda asked. "Because if it has some meaning to you we can work with it and if it doesn't have any meaning we'll just do whatever we feel fits best."

"Uh it's from a video game." Pursing her lips she asked Asriel, 'Your striped shirt was something you wore a lot so that's why we always had that on. What's this one? Do you want to keep it?'

'They're my mom's robes, the easiest thing that came to mind. They always looked really cool when she was doing a lot of fire-magic, but we can wear something else if you want.'

Looking back at the pair she nodded. "I'd rather keep this if you don't mind." Best to keep him happy.

"Alright then. So let's see…" Lindsey trailed off, dragging them by the shirt sleeve closer to the wall and standing them beside all the colors. "How much are you willing to change your robe?"

She bobbed her head back and forth half thinking it over and half making it look like she was thinking, instead asking her resident voice. 'Asriel? It is your mom's robe.'

'Some is alright. Like, maybe add a cape, that would probably look really awesome. Or maybe we could add armor, my dad always looked cool in his.'

"Depends on what you have in mind I guess." The pair nodded and the next twenty minutes was a flurry of activity between the mother daughter pair, swatches of colors being pressed up next to her, them having them change their outfits' shape and size time and time again, them grabbing a few pieces of armor and seeing how it would look like on them. Other than them telling her to change size or move, they were actually rather silent compared to the power testing.

Stopped in front of a mirror so they could see themself, she noted the end result actually kinda looked the same. The color was a lighter blue than before, like the sky, while their robe was cut open in the front twice at the waist, leaving one strip of robe hanging down the middle between their legs and an opening in front of both their legs, the rest of the robe trailing behind almost like a cloak thanks to it. Adding onto that was an actual cape trailing down to the middle of their back, Asriel's symbol fluttering proudly on it. A piece of 'armor' served as a chestplate going to the bottom of their ribcage with another of his symbols on it and two shoulder pads that looked like it belonged to a knight, blue with white trim. The popped collar remained all throughout the fashion ordeal though.

The pair smiled at them, while Taylor moved back and forth watching their new clothes billow as she moved, Brenda saying, "And not a penny spent. Normally this would have cost us a couple hundred dollars at least. Of course we'd still need to pay for whatever armor you put on. Erm. Is that armor actually armor or just looks the part?" Brenda asked looking at the armor pieces they had on.

A nudge to Asriel for an answer, and he took the opportunity to use their mouth "No idea, I'm pretty tough though, so I'm not sure if the armor being real would even help."

Lindsey rolled her eyes while Brenda shook her head. "There's always someone out there that can hurt you. Do you even know what type of armor the PRT has?"

Asriel shook their head, "No, but Armsmaster said I can withstand most bullet-fire, can their stuff do that?" He asked, genuinely curious.

Lindsey wandered off back towards the desk they were sitting at earlier while her mother tapped her chin in thought. "Off the top of my head… Durawear is resistant. Ceramic and Metal is too… do we have anything strictly bullet-proof on the list?" She called out to Lindsey.

Flipping through a stack of papers she answered, "Well nothing's really bullet-proof that a person can carry. An average person anyways. You could easily lift and carry around something thick enough to stop a bullet. Combine that with your already mostly bullet proof body and anything short of an Anti-material rifle would be stopped short."

Asriel nodded "Yeah, that makes sense. Though, I can't just shift into those, would have to take time putting them on. Like everyone else, I guess."

"You do start patrolling from here. And you know when you're going to patrol so short of an emergency you'd have time to put it on." Brenda said. "For us to get material that thick though would cost a bit so we'd need to talk it over and see whether or not you really want any. Not to mention we'd be here for a little while just measuring you, seeing how it fits and etc."

"So right now we're going to talk over how we'll handle the whole ABB colored lights all over the place a few days ago." Her daughter said, walking back over with a half-smirk.

Taylor stopped her admiring of herself in the mirror to chuckle sheepishly. "Yeah sorry about that."

She shrugged and leaned against the wall. "What's happened has happened, just tell us what happened." So Taylor did, talking about her going out to train, meeting a few thugs and having them threaten her and so she shot off some lights for them. Mother and daughter looked at each other again. "Well she was untrained when it all happened, probably didn't know all her powers either."

"Could go for the naive angle."

Lindsey raised a brow. "Wouldn't that kinda backfire when she graduates in only two years?"

"She looks like a kid like this. Just don't say anything about age and just kind of hint to the naivete, focus more on the part where she was in ABB territory, outnumbered and not sure of what her powers were."

Lindsey mulled it over before nodding. "Yeah that sounds good 'nough. Sound like something you can do Azriel?"

She nodded. "Sure I guess. Would I need to memorize some lines or anything?"

"Nah we'll handle that part. Don't think we'd need you to do any public talks about that. Speaking of public things are you up for anything like that?"

Taylor thought it over, not exactly one for doing speeches even in her classrooms let alone people that'd be looking up to her. "I'm um… I guess I could do some firework like stuff if we need something like that?" It was really the only thing that came to mind where she wouldn't have to be at the forefront.

'We can do music too.' Asriel chimed in.

She blinked as the pair started chatting to one another again about fireworks and how that might help with the ABB light fiasco. 'What do you mean we can do music?'

'I was wanting to save it till we got home so I could show off, but it's something we can do. Want me to show you?'

Interrupting the chatting pair she said, "I think I could do some music to accompany the fireworks if we want?"

"You make music?" Lindsey asked cocking her head whilst her mother crossed her arms with a smile.

"Uh yeah. Let me show you." She replied letting Asriel do whatever. She felt her magic twist, and a ball formed beside her, and then it began to pulse and produce sound, sounding like a piano. After a moment, more balls joined it, bringing in strings, and then another piano, then drums as the tune reached it's climax, after which it began to slow down and quiet, the orbs disappearing in reverse order along with their instruments. 'We can do sooo much stuff.'

youtu. be/uKj2SEjZTSo

While she let Asriel do his thing the pair nodded to each other. "Could have her do some parades?"

"Probably could do something for the charity ball in a few months. Definitely helps the image of parahumans being alright people if she joins the band."

"Then the last thing is just checking how you want your name spelled. A few variations on Azriel as a name."

'A-S-R-I-E-L.' Asriel mentally spelled off.

"A-S-R-I-E-L." She repeated for the PR's benefit.

"Alright then, that's all we needed. When you get sworn in and have the time feel free to come back down for checking your size for armor. We'll call Armsmaster back down to get ya." Lindsey said walking back over to their desk by the elevator doors.

Brenda smiled down at them. "I do have to say that looks good on you." With a slight blush she smiled back at her and nodded her thanks as Brenda walked off to join her daughter at the desk.

Lindsey picked up a phone off the desk and sat down on it, calling Armsmaster. "So any questions you got for your friendly PR department?"

Heading over to the desk with them she thought of anything she'd need to ask. Nothing really came to mind except, "Why are there two PR people and just one Power Testing person?"

"Drake likes to work alone." Brenda said matter of factly. "While I bring my daughter along on a lot of things I do." Lindsey waved as she was mentioned.

The phone connected through, she guessed anyways, because Lindsey started talking. "Hey Armsy we're done down here if you want to take her somewhere. Uhuh. Okay see you in a sec." She hung up.

"You know he doesn't like Armsy." Lindsey shrugged as her response, picking up the magazine from earlier and resuming her reading, her mother joining her.

A minute passed off semi-awkward silence, it being awkward just for her though, before the elevator doors opened again with Armsmaster half walking out of it. Still clad in his power armor his head moved just a fraction down and up as he looked them over, finally saying, "You certainly look more mature now."

Walking into the elevator beside him she half-smiled. "Yeah I guess not wearing a striped sweater helps with that."

He hit another button and looked down at them. "Do you know what my power is?" She shook their head. "It's to miniaturize other's technology so long as I have a rudimentary understanding of the thoughts and mechanics behind it. What you wrote on the list you showed me earlier has peaked my interest and I want you to give me a more in-depth explanation of some of the items."

Caught off-guard by that she stammered, "Uh yeah, sure we could do that."

Armsmaster nodded to them as the elevator doors opened up again and stepped out into what looked like a lab. All sorts of important looking equipment was assorted in their, a table in the middle cluttered full of things, drawers and cabinets alongside the walls then a series of computers on the wall directly ahead. Stepping out she looked at the room. "So uh… is this your lab?"

He walked over to the table and brushed some of his components away to the side and grabbed a notepad. "It's the one I have here, my main lab is on the Rig. So I'm ready whenever you two are."

He was really forward about this wasn't he? So she let Asriel take the reigns as he started explaining his magic. Or rather what he called the fundamentals of magic, which she still couldn't get all that much. Maybe a few minutes at the beginning but eventually in less than ten minutes they had moved onto quantum physics as part of the subject which didn't exactly sound like simple. It was at that point that Armsmaster turned to the computers and summoned another person to the discussion, namely the Tinker Dragon, known for being able to make almost any type of technology thus far made.

A short introduction and Asriel jumped back into it, radiating happiness from explaining how magic worked to the two Tinkers, them both offering a few words every other minute. If it weren't for the fact that she knew the two Tinkers in the room knew what they were talking about she would say that Asriel was just speaking gibberish. Asriel smiled the whole while, it at least being a few hours before Dragon spoke up once again from her computer screen, with Canadian voice. "Oh my how time flies. It's already eight." She announced.

Taylor blinked in surprise while Armsmaster looked back to the computer screen, looking for the time on it. "So it is. Well," He laid the notepad down. "We can continue this tomorrow."

Dragon coughed. "Actually I was thinking maybe sometime after they've been sworn in and get used to things. Wouldn't do for us to have her down here everyday."

Armsmaster frowned but nodded, much to Taylor's relief. It was good to hear Asriel explain things but it'd made no sense for five hours straight. Couldn't do that another day in a row. "Then we can do it at some later date I suppose. But it's time for you to go back home."

* * *

Stepping out of her dad's car she threw her backpack back on over her shoulder and shut the door. After all the things she'd seen and done the past few days, she had been expecting something exciting or cool for Wards going home. But no, she just got a ride from her dad back home. It was either that or them running or walking back home, which she hadn't been a fan of. Waiting for her dad then following him up the stairs he asked, "So how'd the first day of school go kiddo? And how's the new job?"

"School was fine. Have classes with a few work friends. Learned about some new things I could do too." She replied as her dad opened the door and they walked in through the front door, both of them slipping off their shoes.

"Oh what's the new thing you can do?" Her dad asked shrugging off his jacket then heading to the kitchen.

A quick check to the door to make sure it was shut. "Well me and Azzy… well Asriel really, can change his form so we look more like a hero. And he can make music out of little orb things." She said wiggling her fingers.

Stopping in the kitchen with her just behind him he turned with a raised brow and smile. "You look more like a hero now? Last time I saw your other form you looked like a little kid."

She shook her head, already changing her form to show the new look. "Nope. PR department helped us pick a few changes." Half a minute passed as her dad waited for them to change.

A look over from her dad with a smirk. "You're still wearing a striped shirt."

Frowning she looked down at their body to see the familiar green and yellow shirt from before. "But we changed it?"

She heard Asriel giggle in her head, before replying 'Hang on.' Again, he clenched their hands, and slowly the sweater changed into the plain purple robes from before, before shifting again to the design the PR people help them make. 'It's hardly permanent, I still see myself with the sweater a lot more than in these, so we gonna have to consciously shift into them.' He explained.

'So it's all about how you see yourself?' She asked as her dad crouched down to their level to get a better look at them.

'Yeah, as I explained before, I guess it shifts to the form we are most familiar with.'

"What's this little dot with wings supposed to be?" Her dad asked pointing at their chest plate.

Asriel raised their right hand to indicate it was him talking. "That's the delta rune, symbol of the Royal Family. It represents a really old prophecy, no-one knows where it came from. The Angel... The One Who Has Seen The Surface... They will return. And the underground will go empty."

Her dad narrowed his eyes at the hand before he realized what it meant and frowned. "Is the underground going empty supposed to be a good thing or something?"

She dropped the right hand and raised left. "Well they were trapped in the underground and all wanted to get back to the surface, so the angel would be basically freeing them all and letting them see the surface."

"Ah." He said with a smile. "Well I do have to admit it does look like a hero would. Except for one thing."

"What?" She asked curious as to what he saw that the PR department didn't.

Reaching forward he ruffled their hair getting a frown from her. "You still look like a kiddo, kiddo. Maybe when you… two grow into it. Need to remember to talk to both of you." He muttered to himself. "Anyways you hungry?"

Huh. She didn't eat since lunch earlier but she wasn't all that hungry really. "Actually no."Starting the change back to her own form she jiggled her backpack on her back. "I should get started on some homework that I have though okay dad?"

He nodded and they went up to her room, stairs creaking under her feet. Opening the door to her sparse bedroom she threw her backpack onto the bed and looked at the computer, half-curious as to what the Parahumans online site might have regarding her. But she did have homework to do though.

'So…' Asriel started in her head, trying to sound nonchalant. 'Want to try playing the Flute?'

A glance to the backpack, to wonder about the homework. She'd already had enough of a headache with trying to understand Asriel so she didn't really need to top it off with more work. 'Sure.'

'Yes.' Asriel cheered, and she felt him take control of the body and shift it back to his form. 'Now, watch this.' He held out his hands before them, and she felt her magic flow out of in a long steady flow, and before her eyes a silverish light formed, and slowly extended into a long tube, and after a moment the tube gained notches, keys, and holes. Finally, the magic flow cut out and the tube dropped into their hands and he handed control back to her. She turned it over in her hands and found it was a flute, seemingly made of silver and glowing lightly. 'What you think?'

Lifting it up to her lips she gave it an experimental blow, only half-surprised to hear it produce a crystal clear note. 'Neat. Feels like a flute, sounds like it and doesn't weigh anything. Not saying flutes weigh much, but still. Thanks.'

'It's not permanent, of course, but I can always make one when you want to play. So, how about it?'

'You want to hear me play?' She asked, hearing a hint of eagerness in his voice.

'Yeah!'

'Uh alright then. It's been a while so don't expect anything grand.' Taking a deep breath in she tried out a few more experimental notes, then focused on combining them into some form of melody she had going through her mind. It took a little bit but eventually she settled into a slight rhythm that sounded nice to her ears.

youtu. be/nkpteBmR60M

After a moment, she felt her magic twist, and then she heard a piano joined her. A brief glance around the room as she continued playing didn't show any of those orb things from earlier joining in, but she knew for a fact it was Asriel doing it. Shrugging to herself she just let the piano accompany her piece, the two instruments complimenting one another. A gentle calm filled the room as they both played their own instrument, no words being said, only the music filling the air.

A few peaceful minutes of this passed, before she finally started to wind down, Asriel following suit. Lowering the flute with a smile she sighed. 'That felt pretty nice.' Before Asriel could respond her dad knocked on the door. Crap she told him she was going to do homework. "Uh come in."

Cracking the door open her dad peeked in with another smile. "You two having fun up here?" She nodded. "We'll just don't play too loud alright kiddo? Don't want to wake up some of the neighbors."

"Okay dad."

"Good. Love you."

"Love you too dad." With that he closed the door behind him leaving the two of them alone in her room.

They sat in peaceful silence for a while before Asriel spoke up in a calm voice 'Taylor, you seem to not really get how long I spent in the Underground.'

Well that come out of nowhere she thought to herself. 'What do you mean?'

'You asked if I played something. You were surprised I had textbooks memorized. You also didn't seem to understand why I got so frustrated over not remembering the Royal Scientist. I have mastered every instrument, read all of the books dozens of times over, and when I said I became friends with everyone, I meant everyone, everyone from Undyne, head of the royal guard, to little Suzy in the Capital. I have spent a lot of time in the Underground, won every game, lost every game, read every book, burned every book, I did just about everything there could be done there before Frisk came...'

Stunned into silence it took a few moments for her to respond. 'Well… it's kind of hard to imagine somebody doing all of that.'

'I understand, just it seems like a kind of important thing for you to know, with me stuck in your head. There's a reason I know all these things I do, about magic, science, math, history. I have had a lot of time to learn them.'

'So everything in the Underground... you have memorized... no matter how little?' She asked haltingly, checking.

'Almost. There are still a few things I don't know, never could find where Dad kept the souls for example. Suzy's favorite ice-cream is rocky road, Gerson keeps a spare key under the rock to the right of his back door, Undyne defines her life-purpose by serving and protecting the people of the Underground.'

That raised a single question for her or rather two related ones. 'This was all the same except what you changed each time right? So how'd Frisk show up then?'

'I have no idea. They never showed up before, in any of the other timelines.' Asriel replied, mentally shrugging his shoulder. 'You can probably guess how surprised I was.'

'Doesn't sound like it makes sense.' She commented standing back up and putting her backpack on the table beside her computer, flute held in her left hand. 'So they had DETERMINATION too right? What'd they do with theirs? Just make friends with everybody?'

'The thing is, they barely used it at all. They made friends with everyone with ease, they got through the entire Underground full of monsters trying to kill them with only a few scratches to show for it. Even my dad, the strongest monster in the Underground, they managed to beat with just a frying pan. Besides healing themselves with Save-Points, the only time they used their DETERMINATION to LOAD was after they beat me the first time.' He said, with a note of awe in his voice.

That sounded a bit impossible with all the abilities Asriel had shown the Monsters could possibly do. 'How does DETERMINATION work with another person? Can you both LOAD or something?'

'Nope. Their DETERMINATION completely overid mine, I couldn't do anything anymore.'

'But you remembered when they LOADed that one time?' She asked checking something.

'Yeah, it's what caused me to go for plan B, and absorb the souls of all the monsters in the underground.'

'Ah.' Was all she really had to say to that. 'Well uh thanks for clarifying on the whole time in Underground thing.'

'No problem. Like I said, seemed like something you should know, having me in your head, and all.'

Twirling the flute in hand she smiled. 'So want to play another song then?'

She felt him smile in turn 'Sure.'

AN: The following two images are more or less kind of how the new outfit looks on Asriel. Just imagine kid Asriel, with the top link being the top half of them and bottom link being the bottom half, minus the coloration.

I2. kym-cdn photos/images/newsfeed/001/031/112/832. png

pre14. deviantart 8ee8/th/pre/i/2015/359/6/9/dreemurr_by_piecee01-d9kqsaf. png


	11. Year of the Dragon

AN: Thanks to Draikinator I now have a lovely piece of coverart for this story. Look up his tumblr if you want more lovely Undertale things!

Walking down the sidewalk with her backpack hanging off her shoulder, heading to the scrapyard she asked Asriel, ' _So a nexus is needed for a box to work because of…'_ She trailed off questioningly.

' _It would be too expensive and take too much work to make every box capable of reaching through dimensions on their own, so the nexus was designed to be a network controller of sorts. Every box links to it, and through it into the subspace where items are kept. This also makes it easier for users to access the same space regardless of which box they use.'_

' _So it's like a cellphone tower then. Can we move the boxes anywhere or is there a limit to the nexus?'_ She asked, turning the corner that hopefully lead to the scrapyard.

' _We should be able to use it anywhere, as long as we don't go to another dimension or something like that.'_

' _And we can make this out of scrap metal?'_ If she remembered right he said he worked in an actual lab where they probably had actual materials to build with. While they were going to work with… well scrap.

' _Yeah? Where else would we find microprocessors and the like easily? You Humans throw out a lot of still usable stuff, radios, phones, computers, a lot of stuff that can easily be taken apart and re-used.'_

' _When I think of a scrapyard I don't think of phones computer and stuff. I think of rusted cars. Which might have radios in them.'_ She said. She didn't get how he was going to make any of the stuff he'd mention so far with scrap metal. The thing she'd asked about that had led them to their current trip to the scrapyard had been the jetpack phone. Which sounded fun.

' _Whatever we find could be useful, for stuff we find is something we don't have to make ourselves. Resistors, Transistors, Processors, Capacitors, even just a Radio would have lots of useful stuff in it.'_

If he was anybody else she'd be questioning why he knew so much about scrap metal and how to build with it. ' _Well what do you hope to find, beyond just things we can find?'_ She was curious as to what type of scrap would be best for building a frigging box in between dimensions. Turning another corner she idly noted the graffiti on one of the walls for the E88.

' _Well, some spark plugs from a car engine would definitely be useful, could use the-'_ He was interrupted as a series of loud bangs sounded off down the street, startlingly loud that made her jump onto the ground, having known what the sound was. Gunshots, followed closely by another series of shots from down the street. Somebody was shooting nearby her.

"Hell's going on?" She asked out-loud, not sure where the gunshots were coming from, nor why they were there. Could be a cop, or more likely an E88 member judging by that graffiti earlier.

"I don't know." Asriel answered, sounding very surprised and confused, as well as a bit worried.

Slowly standing up, looking every which way for the source of the gunshots she thought over how she should get out of here.

Wait a minute. No. She was a hero now. A strong one at that. If anything she should be running towards the gunshots to see what was going on and help. Another rattle of gunfire and she looked in the direction of where she thought it was coming from, with a frown. Close to being a Ward with a monster prince in her head and she thought about running away at first. "Hey Asriel how do you feel about being a hero right now?"

"Oh, um, yeah." He replied sounding surprised, and after looking around with her head to see that no-one could see them their body started to shift to his form. It seemed to go a bit faster every time they did it, this time taking maybe twenty seconds, and once they were transformed he clenched their hands and his sweater shifted into the robes they designed with the PR people.

With Asriel done she swung her backpack off and put it next to a little alcove in the building, before jogging over to the intersection and peering around the corner to see if she could see the people shooting. Seeing nothing but hearing the gunshots louder she jogged down the street not breaking into a run because she had no idea what to expect nor was she too confident in her own abilities yet regarding a fight. Down the street she jogged and paused by the edge of the building like she did before and peered around the corner, finally seeing what was going on.

At least two dozen or so ABB members, dressed in their red and green gang colors, all of whom were wielding some type of gun, be it a pistol, a rifle, shotgun or other. Hiding behind cars, or in doorways they were exchanging shots with people who seemed to be hiding inside a series of houses on the opposite side of the street, but again looking back at the grafitti and other individuals on the street, their opponents were the E88. The skinheads of Brockton Bay.

The two noticeable individuals on the street besides the ABB gang members, were very noticeable people. One literal white-skinned man wielding a small compact gun that wasn't a pistol nor a rifle was openly walking on the street, every few seconds being riddled with bullets by the ABB gang, but seemingly healing instantly every few seconds. He raised his gun up after being shot in the head, to return fire, before he flew back and onto the ground a huge bloody hole in his chest. And again he healed instantly and stood back up. The other noticeable person was constantly moving, being it ducking, rolling, leaning, jumping or other to avoid the bullets flying in her direction. Two little handheld scythes that twirled whenever she came close to an ABB member and put them down to the ground. A metal cage served as her mask.

Due to whole joining the Wards thing she'd stayed up on some nights to look up the local villains she could recognize them both as Alabaster for the man and Cricket for the woman. Backed up by armed E88 members inside the building. So many people with guns on the street along with the two capes. According to Armsmaster she was bulletproof to handguns. Not all the ones that were on the street. She didn't want to find out how guns stronger than handguns would do to her. ' _Azzy what's the range on how far we can summon fireballs and stuff like that?'_

' _Uh, five feet generally to summon it, but after creating them we can chuck them pretty far.'_ he replied

' _Any type of sense for seeing the people inside?'_ She asked, cringing as another rattle of gunfire sounded off along with a scream.

' _No. But, maybe I could…'_ He trailed off, obviously thinking up something, before he mentally shook his head ' _Don't have time to figure it out now, something for later. So, no.'_

Okay so safely hiding here and throwing fire at ALL of them wasn't possible and she had no idea how many E88 members there were besides the fact that there was enough to 'safely' shoot back at the ABB gang. Maybe get on top of the roof and just flame everything? No they were still human and wouldn't do all too well with that much fire. He did mention some other things besides fire. ' _Can you do anything else besides fire right now?'_

' _MAYBE physical constructs, not sure what their quality would be.'_

Okay so they were stuck more or less with fire so they'd have to be careful not to kill anybody. More gunfire reminded her that she wouldn't be afforded the same. Taking a deep breath she flexed their hands lining up an idea in her mind. ' _Okay so here's what I have in mind, I'm more used to having a body because you used to be a flower so I'll move us around and do the physical stuff. You're the better magic user so you can handle that. Sound like a plan?'_

' _Sure thing, lead the way.'_ He replied, and she could feel their magic already begin to twist as he prepared to fight. Another deep breath to steel herself for the fact she was about to jump into a gunfight, even though she knew she could handle some of it. But this is what being a hero meant, jumping headfirst into stuff like this to save others. Or put people like this in jail. A final peek around the corner to put where each gang member was or remind herself of who she was fighting against, realizing that several more ABB members were on the ground now and the two E88 capes were closer than earlier.

Rounding the corner she broke out into a full-on sprint, intending to blindside the ABB from behind and then continue on with the E88. Instead though she ended up launching herself down the street and past the ABB, and slamming facefirst into the ground, flipping over and past the E88 capes. It took a moment for her to stop their roll and stand back up, not having expected that. Super-speed or something to tack onto powers, would have been nice to have known before hand. "Oooow." Asriel groaned rubbing their face, burning from dragging across the mirrored that sentiment as she looked up to where they'd landed.

Now they were behind the E88, Alabaster looking back at them with a raised brow, before being shot again and flung to the ground. A few seconds passed before he stood back up with a frown and returned fire to whoever had shot him. Cricket though was already racing towards them with a snarl on her lips. Asriel seemed to realize that she was going to do the same to them as she'd done to the ABB gang, for a few dozen balls of fire sprang into existence around them. A moment long enough for Asriel to look at the building that housed the E88 shooters, and long enough for someone to scream a warning, before the fireballs launched at their targets.

She was pretty sure the people in the building ducked out of the way, while Cricket seemed to wrap around the fire sent towards her, none actually touching her. The scythes in her hands twirled as she ran towards them, before disappearing from sight as Asriel summoned an almost literal wall of fire and sent that towards Cricket. Taylor looked towards the building again and saw one of the E88 members standing back up with a gun and, keeping in mind her speed, dashed out of the way. To the right of the wall of fire, where Alabaster had a clear shot at them with his rifle.

A punch is what it felt like right in their chest, knocking her back for a second, while Asriel summoned another few dozen fireballs to send flying at everyone in vicinity. Alabaster ducked underneath one and dodged another, just for one to slam into his gun and make him drop it with a shout. Before he did his instant healing thing she noticed his hands looked burnt and he turned around to the building full of E88 members. She leaped after him and half-tackled, half-slammed into his back, bringing them both crashing into the ground. She was vaguely aware of the gunfight going on around her, but she instead focused on grabbing Alabaster's wrists, figuring that if she could handle two tons with squatting, then that meant she could immobilize him like this.

All the while Asriel had kept up with the walls of fire to keep them from being seen. Judging by the intermittent gunfire, much less frequent than it had been earlier, it was working quite well, along with however many people he'd hit with his first volley. Wrenching up the villain, while ignoring his protests, she looked back up in time to see Cricket lunging at her with the scythes. Acting out of reflexes she squeaked and let go of Alabaster to dodge the swinging pair of scythes. Asriel immediately brought more fire up to make her back off, but Cricket accomplished her goal of making her let go of Alabaster.

Alabaster immediately jumped away as Cricket jumped in front of them again with her scythes with another snarl. Instead of rushing them again Cricket flung a single scythe at them, their body suddenly lurching to the side as Asriel took control and had them dodge the scythe, Cricket already turning tail and running. Taylor took the moment to look back at the ABB, seeing much fewer of their number, discarded guns on the ground. Probably from the earlier fireballs that Asriel had thrown, hitting a good number of them all.

The few that were left, looked conflicted about the idea of running away or standing their ground against the hero that had just routed the E88 apparently. Another glance towards said gang saw the E88 scattering and absent from their windows of earlier. Taylor couldn't shake the feeling that something felt off here. The half-dozen ABB left hadn't fired yet, nor ran, so she took the opportunity to stand back up and think.

"Um, are we done?" Asriel asked, obviously as uncertain as her. A screech of wheels from down the street, then a van speeding up behind the ABB gang members answered the question of it not being over. The moment it popped into sight Asriel had summoned a few more dozen fireballs, Taylor instead tightened her fists and lowered herself back into a crouch as the van squealed to a stop behind the other ABB cars, the door opening up on the side and revealing the real reason why the E88 had ran. Stepping out was an imposing man standing a little over six feet tall, rippling muscles but not superhumanly muscular, hundreds of tattoos that all depicted dragons covering him from the neck down. Wearing only jeans and an ornate metal mask she could identify him as arguably the most dangerous man in Brockton Bay, somebody that entire teams of superheroes couldn't beat, the leader of the Asian Bad Boyz, Lung.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." She muttered to herself as Lung stopped for one of the ABB members, saying a few words and then pointing in their direction. Lung looked at them and said something to the remaining ABB members because they all immediately jumped in their cars and drove back off in the direction that his van had come from. "You feel like pushing our luck Azzy?"

"I'm willing to try if you are." He replied, and she could feel him pumping more magic into the fireballs, making them larger and glow brighter. She nodded and wiggled their fingers again, not sure why she was planning on doing this. Going up against Lung on their first day of heroing, not the best idea, even if they did handle two E88 capes well.

"This is either going to go really well or really bad." She said to herself as Lung approached them all by his lonesome. If she remembered the profile he was supposed to transform, have super regeneration, super strength and some pyrokinesis. Oh uh… she glanced to the fireballs hovering next to her. ' _Have you ever dealt with somebody who can screw with your fireballs? Pretty sure he can do that.'_

' _No, but unless he can control Magic, or has absolute control of fire, it shouldn't be too bad.'_ He replied confidently. She nodded to that, Magic was most certainly not part of Lung's powers. Or she hoped anyways.

A few seconds of silence as Lung kept walking before stopping a good distance away from them. He called out to them in a growl-like voice, one that demanded attention from anybody listening. "I'm giving you one chance to run little brat, consider it your only warning." She stood their ground and shook their head, bringing their fists up in front of them, while Asriel brought the fireballs closer to them. Lung shook his head. "Just wasting my time brat." With that he charged at them, not caring for the fireballs hovering near them.

Asriel responded by throwing a single ball at him, which hit him. For a split second nothing, then it exploded in a brilliant flash of light and sent Lung flying back down the street, crashing once on the ground then rolling the second time. ' _How much power did you pack into these?'_ She asked with a flabbergasted look to the fireballs next to them. She knew they could blow up a building, but still, sending a man that looked like he was two hundred pounds flying down a street was a bit much.

' _A fair bit. He's a strong guy, isn't he? Don't need to hold back as much.'_ ' He answered as Lung stood back up down the street, already running back at them, most of his pants ripped or on fire. As Asriel readied another fireball she half-ran towards Lung too, watching how fast she was going, thinking it'd be better to be closer to him. Maybe try to pin him after the next fireball. As they neared one another she noticed the fact he looked silver now, his own fire rolling off of him.

Lung lashed out with a hand, sending a string of fire at them as Asriel sent another fireball at him. She jumped to the side and out of the way with ease, newly realized super-speed helping, as Lung was hit and sent flying down the street again. But not as much as he clawed at the ground for traction in the air, righting himself in moments and exploding in fire. Standing up once more, he charged a third time, using his power like a flamethrower, both blinding them and covering most of the street with ten feet of him. Said wall of flame approaching fast.

Asriel didn't worry about any of it and merely flung several fireballs this time while she moved them back and out of reach of the flame, Lung not being nearly as fast as them. A few explosions and the wall of fire stopped, a loud crash sounding as Lung was thrown somewhere again. After the flames died off and they could see again, she saw the hole in one of the buildings, the source of the sound. Where they'd apparently thrown Lung. ' _Well uh either Lung is not as strong as he's made out to be or we're really strong.'_

Before Asriel could respond Lung popped back out of the hole, gleaming silver thanks to whatever it was that his power was. His pants were fully gone now, but anything he might have shown was covered by the rolling flames, which he immediately threw at them. It missed as she stepped to the side, Asriel sending two fireballs at him this time, one at him then one closer to the ground. Lung leaped out of the hole in the building and ran at them again, the second fireball having missed completely. Standing and waiting as Asriel thought of how to throw the fireballs again she realized what the silver was. Scales, completely encasing his body, his fingers now bladed claws.

The longer this was going, the stronger he was going to get, or at least that's what his power seemed to be suggesting. Actually putting some effort into a run, she went back down the street away from him so she could safely talk to Asriel. ' _Are you getting the same idea that the longer we take, the harder it's going to be?'_

' _Yeah…'_ He trailed off, sounding nervous. After a brief moment, he nervously asked. ' _He CAN heal, right?'_

Another blast of fire from Lung and she jumped to the side, noticing that he even seemed to be faster now to add onto the fire and full-body scales. What else was he getting from his power? ' _It's what Parhuman Online said. And the fact we're throwing him around like this would back that up.'_ A more controlled series of fireballs from Lung as he tried to blanket the area in an effort to hit them, making her back up even more.

' _Ok, so I don't need to hold back as much. He can heal, he will be fine.'_ Asriel said, seeming like he was trying to reassure himself more than anything as she felt even more magic pour into the fireballs, which began to turn white with power. Lung stopped in his advance for a moment, was he pausing to rethink over how he was going to do this fight? Another moment and he hunched over, fists clenched in concentration of something and when stood back up she could swear he was a foot taller. So no he was just transforming even more now. His flames seemed to be a bit bluer than before, meaning he was ramping up too.

Running at them again the flames spread outwards to either side of him, then the flames speared inwards on them with Lung filling the only open space. Asriel sent one of the white fireballs directly at Lung, who charged right at it, then ducked underneath it in a surprising burst of speed, switching to running on all fours for a second then jumping back up to regular running. Taylor ran at Lung to dodge the walls of fire coming from either side and Asriel tried with another fireball. This one hit home on Lung and exploded in a brilliant flash of white, this time sending Lung spinning to the right, with something else spinning to the left.

He smashed a hole into another building, ruining somebody else's home and Taylor spared a glance to what that item that had spun away from Lung was. Looking for it she saw something she hadn't been expecting, that made her queasy from seeing it, said object being an arm. One that was covered in silvery triangular scales, but still an arm, one that obviously belonged to Lung. Holding a hand up to her mouth, just in case, she looked back to the hole just in time to see it explode in fire. Out strode Lung, completely unfazed by the fact he was missing most of his right arm, his left fist curling again.

Even without the arm he seemed larger and more menacing, before he disappeared in his fire and it roared towards them, Lung somewhere inside of it. Asriel responded by sending two of the killer fireballs into the midst of the flame, not hitting Lung for the wave of fire kept towards them. Then it exploded outwards at them, fully set on the idea of baking them alive. Looking up to the edge of one of the roofs she thought about how super speed and strength might translate over to the ability to jump up and out of the way. As the hurricane of fire came at them she decided to try it and crouched down low to the ground before leaping towards one of the buildings on the side.

Having had an idea of how fast they could go she was more prepared for the sudden burst of speed, but was still surprised by how fast they flew at the roof, somehow being able to catch the edge and keeping them from going over the roof. Flipping back down onto the roof, she wondered how she managed that because Asriel hadn't taken control for that. Something to puzzle over later she thought as the flames flooding the street flung up at them. Asriel threw two more fireballs into the lake of fire, again not hitting wherever Lung was. Where was he?

Safely hidden wherever it was Lung responded to their fireballs with his own, a swarm of fireballs launching out of the fire's midst. Hopping back from the edge to safety she frowned trying to think of where he would be hiding. Lung according to the stuff she'd read wasn't the type to hide or run and he should have leapt over the edge already, so where was he?

A scaly limb erupting out of the roof answered her question. It grasped her arm, and with it came the rest of Lung, ripping through the roof with ease and the rubble pouring off him like water. His own inferno of flame lashed out of the hole behind him and poured forth, only serving to highlight the grinning snarl he had plastered on his face. Time seemed to slow as he squeezed, and her arm came off. Without her direction her other arm launched forward, and even as she watched it move she could see the fur burn off and blacken. It struck Lung firmly in the face, which didn't move an inch, they moved instead. They were launched back by their own strike, and she saw all the fireballs around them converge on Lung, then the world turned white.


	12. Interlude: Fried Goat

Another regular day in Brockton Bay, Miss Militia thought to herself as she rode on the back of Armsmaster's motorcycle on the way to a gang shoot-out. The second one of the day and if the first was anything to go by, then it was the E88 and ABB again, Asriel's light show having sparked off some aggression from the other gangs in the city against the ABB. Not the best start off to someone's career, but at least she… they didn't mean it. A nudge from Armsmaster in front. "Update of Cricket and Alabaster at the scene."

"Alright." Not the worst of opponents to fight against but they were annoying. Alabaster with around a four second timer on a full-body reset to a perfect condition regardless of any of his injuries. Cricket with enhanced reflexes, an ability to give others nausea and could keep track of others. Not a normal combination of the two E88 capes though, maybe the others were tied up somewhere else. Not a good thought.

Still though on the good side of things it meant the gangs were occupying each other and the two of them could probably take care of the two villains with a bit of effort. If the two didn't run before they could arrive on scene again. A little while passed in silence as Armsmaster drove them between cars stuck in traffic and on towards the shoot-out. Said silence was ruined when Armsmaster added on, "Asriel is on scene too now."

She frowned behind her scarf. "Is it even anywhere near where they live?"

"No it isn't." He answered as they raced past another car, the flash of a child pressed against the screen of the window in the corner of her eye. "Might have decided they wanted to patrol to get themselves ready for the Wards. So long as they don't run into someone with armor-piercing ammunition they should be fine. Roughed up, but fine."

"Didn't you say they were only handgun proof?" She asked checking something.

"With no internal organs, and the fact that a handgun merely pierces them. So judging by the normal weaponry the ABB or E88 carries and the fact that Alabaster wields the same as their normal members and Cricket uses handheld scythes, they should only be roughed up." He explained for his thinking.

"We still should tell them about the fact they shouldn't be solo patrolling."

"Of course. We can do that when they're debriefed." He stated as he drove them between another set of cars.

Nodding they lapsed back into silence for maybe half a minute before Armsmaster spoke up again, much more suddenly. "Lung just showed up and Asriel is there all by themself."

A moment for that to register. "Fucking Lung is there?" The gang-leader that took on a half-dozen teams of heroes all by his lonesome and walked away unscathed, was going to be there for Asriel's first patrol while doing it solo? Why did they decide to do a patrol by their lonesome?

"Yeah and our informant just hung up at that so no more information on what's going on." He said with a hint of anxiousness.

"They're nowhere near ready for Lung."

"Nobody's ready for Lung." He stated weaving around a corner. "If they're smart they'll realize that too and run."

"We haven't even talked to them about the local capes."

"Hopefully they looked them up in their own free time." He stated before kicking the motorcycle into high gear and turning everything into a blur beside them, obviously focusing on getting them to the scene of the fight. He even started using the sidewalks alongside the roads, sending people jumping out of the way for safety.

Leaving her to worry about how their newest member was about to fight the most dangerous cape in the entire city. Not many thoughts came to mind as to how that could possibly go down safely. Forced to have nothing but that in mind she quietly watched Armsmaster speed along sidewalks, past cars and through red lights, which under most other circumstances would be a nightmare with paperwork and media. It slowly transitioned from the lively neighborhoods of Brockton Bay's uptown to the downtown that grew more disfigured and prevalent with graffiti. Maybe another minute before they arrived.

The massive explosion that first assaulted her ears shook her out of her thoughts, before more literally shaking her and making Armsmaster nearly swerve into the side of a car. Whipping her head up to see what was doing that she caught the tail-end of the explosion erupting a dozen streets ahead, the lower half of it hidden by the two story building in front of them. "Jesus christ… was that where?"

"Yes, yes it was." Armsmaster confirmed for her, that it was indeed where the fight was. He swerved around the building and down the alleyway beside it, towards the exploded site. Peering over his shoulder she saw that the explosion had reached down to the ground as well, the crater that had formed from it being proof of that. Some dust was falling down from the sky now, serving as almost snow for the figure at the epicenter, they still being too far away for her to make out clearly.

The motorcycle squealed to a stop beside the crater, Armsmaster flipping out his halberd and she turning her handgun on her side into an RPG held aloft by her shoulder. A few steps forward to see what looked like a large lump of coal sitting next to a barely recognizable Lung. Reason for her being able to recognize it as Lung was the dragon tattos that the villain had loved to adorn himself with, that were dotted across his chest, the rest of it burnt off. A mangled head sat atop a torso with a small stump of a right arm, left being completely gone. There were most of his legs, good portions of the upper parts burnt off or gone but otherwise mostly still there.

When the lump of coal turned it's head towards her, she realized what it was, Taylor in her little goat form. She was charred all over, stripped of clothes and right arm reduced to nothing but the shoulder and the long ears that were supposed to be there, completely absent. She lifted their remaining arm and waved at them, some white dust seeming to pour out of the cracks between the charred chunks, and almost fell over when she did such before catching herself.

She stared for a moment at the charred hero before letting go of the RPG and dashing towards them, Armsmaster following shortly after her. As she got closer, she asked in a hopeful tone "I beat the bad guy, am I a hero now?"

She slid to a stop beside him and attributed that question to the amount of damage he'd suffered. Quickly unwrapping the sash around her waist so as to keep the dust in her, thinking it was some equivalent of blood, she replied, "Yeah you're a hero, of course." A smile spread across her face at her response, leaving her looking really happy despite her condition. Okay she was really delirious right now, but she instead focused on the absent arm and the overall burned parts of her body to see how to best wrap it around her. "I'm going to need you to stay still, despite how much it hurts okay?"

"Alright." Nodding to that she gingerly took the sash and as gently as she could wrapped it around the remnants of her arm, really no more than her shoulder, and wrapped the other end around her neck to keep it secure. A glance over to Armsmaster and she saw him using a syringe on Lung, probably a tranquilizer of some sorts. Taylor followed her gaze and said, "You should get a healer or something, I'm not sure how good his healing is."

Armsmaster said, "He'll be fine. You on the other hand do need a healer." He pointed out, lifting a hand up to his helmet.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not dying." She said, remaining arm going to their chest, over their heart. "Feels more intact than it's usual breaking point."

Miss Militia frowned at that, even with the damage she suffered that made no sense, this was her first time fighting wasn't it? But one other question she felt was more important. "Taylor can you tell me what happened?"

She slowly shook her head. "Taylor is busy hiding from the pain right now, but I can tell you. Most of the fight went fairly well, Taylor managing to keep us at a distance while I knocked him back with fireballs. But towards the end we got blindsided when he lept through a building, and grabbed our arm." She said, vaguely gesturing to the missing arm. "I instinctively reacted, and hit him with all the fireballs I had prepared, resulting in that explosion, and knocking him out."

Miss Militia blinked at that. Taylor was hiding, so that meant... "Asriel?"

"Yeah?" He asked.

Still a weird thing to think about with two distinct people in a body, even after making it a point to think like that. "Taylor's hiding?"

"Yeah." He replied simply.

She wasn't quite sure what hiding meant, nor why he wasn't hiding too. "What do you mean by hiding Asriel?" For all she knew that was something really bad with two 'people' in one head.

"She's all… curled up." He said, gesturing towards their head. "The one in control has more direct feelings from the body. She separated herself as much as she can, so I took over for her till she comes back."

Tidbit to file away for later. She would ask how much it hurt, but it was pretty obvious. Ears, arm and skin all gone, what other injuries were there? "Asriel how's your head?"

"Mostly fine. Burned, and thing seem louder for some reason, but that's it." He answered, eyes seeming to look past her. Turning to see what he was looking at she saw nothing but the empty building across the street and turned back to him, seeing him still staring off into nothing. Probably had a concussion to add to the list of visible injuries.

What else could she do to figure out what might be wrong… a couple questions sounded good. Looking around for something simple she asked, "Asriel can you tell me what color the sky is?"

His head rolled to look up at the sky. "Grayish blue."

Okay that was correct so nothing seemed wrong with sight but it wouldn't hurt to double check. Holding a finger up in front of him she asked, "Can you follow my finger?"

He obliged and followed it as she moved it back and forth. So nothing wrong there. "My name?"

"Miss Militia." He replied easily.

Looked like no amnesia either. Giving Asriel another look-over and seeing the dust that seemed to leak out in place of the blood she wondered about something. "Asriel, do drugs work on you when you're like this?"

"I don't think so, monster physiology is completely different from a human's."

Different physiology… was that even the equivalent of blood then she wondered because he didn't have any organs in this state. That did bring to mind one thing that was sometimes the case with various Breakers, that being sometimes when their other form was injured their human form was fine. A prime example in city being Night who always healed from transforming. Or it could be like some other Breakers where if they're injured in one state they'll be injured in both, meaning that if he wasn't bleeding out now with that dust, he would quickly when he went back to Taylor's form. But he seemed to know everything about her power, even having handed them a list so he would probably know. "Asriel do your injuries carry over into Taylor's form?"

He lifted one of his hands and stared at it, as he slowly flexed it. "I'm pretty sure it wouldn't, clothes get preserved after all, and the few nicks or bruises she got in hers never carried over to mine."

Then it sounded fine to try and have him switch over. "Then can you switch to her form for me?"

"Sure thing." He happily replied, and the body beside her began to grow, almost looking like flowing liquid as the charred lumps turned into a loose set of jeans with a just as loose jacket hanging off her frame, the backpack being the only thing that was close to fitting her. From the scalp sprouted a long head of hair, and all his limbs became long and thin. In a couple of seconds, Taylor's body was sitting in front of her, completely unharmed, or even dirtied, the sash that had been wrapped around the missing arm now hanging off the neck.

But there was still that same unfocused look in the eyes, swaying slightly without movement and a small placid smile at having done what was asked. Not the signs of somebody who was healthy. She asked, "Asriel are you feeling okay?"

He turned his head towards her and seemed to forcibly focus his eyes on her. "Sorry, the pain is kinda distracting, it's more vivid than usual."

He still hurt? Now he was perfectly fine, did it carry over or something? "Asriel why does it hurt?"

"The damage to the body isn't what matters. It's the soul." He put Taylor's hand to her chest, and with a twist their Soul appeared, but now it was severely cracked, dim, and seemed to be dripping the golden light it stored within, the rainbow wisps of lights not faring any better, moving much more slowly and looking far more dim in color. She would have questioned how he just did that in her form, but was instead focused on the malformed Soul in front of her. "See, still damaged. A Monster's body is a projection of their soul, so damage to the body damages the soul. A Human's body is made of actual matter, and as such the soul could be damaged without it being visible. It's not getting any dimmer or worse, so we're going to be alright, probably going to have to eat a good bit of Monster Food to help the healing process however.."

He did seem to at least to be doing better. "So it doesn't matter what form, you're still going to feel the missing arm?" He looked perfectly fine as he was now, but Breaker forms were connected to human form sometimes.

"The arm isn't the problem, it's mostly the burns." He shrugged. "The arm mostly just feels dead." He said, lifting it and flexing it. "I can feel it's there, but it's distant." Even as he talked, his eyes lost the focus they had just a moment ago.

The sound of sirens coming closer made her look up and in the direction of said sirens. Then back down at the completely revealed Taylor in the middle of the crater. "Can you switch back to your form, we don't want anyone finding out her identity."

"Sure thing." And the process reversed itself, limbs contracting, hair receding, charred lumps appearing.

She took the sash off while he transformed and looked up towards the ambulance coming in, somehow only a street away it seemed, a PRT van for Lung beside it, despite not being seen just earlier. Looking back to Asriel she saw him already transformed. "Do you need help getting up?" She would normally do it anyways but with the lack of unburnt area she was hesitant to do so.

"I got it." He waved her off with his remaining arm, and then leaned forward and stumbled to his feet, teetering side to side a bit before he got his balance.

Biting her lip behind her scarf she looked back up as the siren sounded as if it was coming from right next to her, to see the ambulance and PRT van were actually next to her. Or almost anyways as they came to a stop outside the crater. How had they gone that far that fast? The answer came when young Vista in her forest-green costume stepped out of the back of the ambulance, followed by two paramedics. Out of the PRT van came a full PRT squad to escort Lung back to HQ. A momentary pause for the three out of the ambulance as they looked at the charred coal that was Asriel, before jumping forward as Vista activated her power, the PRT squad already jogging up next to Lung and Armsmaster.

A dozen steps forward and the trio were within reach, Vista staring incredulously at Asriel, paramedics doing the same. Asriel waved, stumbling slightly. "Hi Vista!"

She stared for a few more moments looking him up and down fully before waving back. "A-are you okay Asriel?" The paramedics just looked between the two of them then at each other, not saying anything.

"Just burned all over and missing an arm, I will live." He said in a manner that was probably supposed to be reassuring. Instead getting a horrified look from her.

Miss Militia asked, "Vista can you help Asriel to the hospital, he needs someplace to rest."

Vista nodded and the two paramedics came up to Asriel's side to help him along if he stumbled. Except he didn't make a move at first, the two paramedics not helping in concern of all the burn marks. A forced smile from Vista as she said, "Asriel? Come on we need to get you in the ambulance."

"Oh, alright, sorry." He said, sounding a bit surprised and then began walking towards the ambulance. It took him a little bit, even with the shortened distance, to get to the ambulance but he did without incident.

Armsmaster cleared his throat behind Miss Militia, making her turn around towards him, seeing the PRT people moving Lung by carrying him and starting to bring him back up to the van. Armsmaster had his halberd strapped across his back and said with a sigh, "We have another shoot-out already. We need to go." She nodded, heading back up to his motorcycle with him, Lung securely tucked away with the PRT van.

Vista kept the forced smile on her face as she held the door open for Asriel's stretcher, shrinking the distance between the door and the bed they were heading to. The doctors rushed past with the blackened and burnt hero, lips curved up in a smile. She couldn't believe that Asriel was managing to keep a smile throughout all this, left near the edge of death on her first outing. Closing the door behind herself she watched as they carted Asriel next to the bed and gingerly lifted her up and into the bed. Two nurses left while the other two left behind lifted a blanket up and over her. One asked with a slight grimace to Asriel, "Anything else we can get you so you're comfortable?"

"Nah, I'm good." Asriel responded, waving them off with her one arm. The two exchanged a look, a silent conversation between the two before the one that hadn't spoke up yet shook their head no. Then they turned to leave. Without hooking her up to an IV machine, or bandages, stitches, cleaning of the burned wounds or anything.

Hang on a second. Squeezing the space between herself and the two nurses together so she could talk to them better she frowned at them. "Why aren't you doing anything for her?"

The one that had shook his head sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Well believe me if we could, we would. But we can't, we were sent a note that her biology isn't normal so we can't treat her really. We can just make her comfortable until Panacea shows up."

A deeper frown came to her face about that fact that Asriel would have to deal with it for however long until Panacea came. But it did sound like they couldn't help her with how he said it. "Alright."

"If anything I think somebody keeping her company would help." The nurse suggested. To which she nodded and the nurses left the room, leaving just her and Asriel… or Taylor really. Taylor needed help more than Asriel right now.

Squeezing the distance between her and the bed she took two steps and arrived next to the bed. Looking down at her charred form, able to look over the edge of the bed by only a few inches, Vista was at a loss of what to say. Checking to see that the door was closed she took their privacy another step further by bending the room around so their voices would bounce around, effectively being silenced by the time it would leave the room. "Uh… hey Taylor."

"She's busy right now." She responded simply.

Vista cocked her head at that, it not making any sense. Which was understandable, but still confusing. "You're busy right now?"

She shook her head. "I'm not doing anything. Need something?"

More confusing than it just was a second ago. "You just said you were busy."

"No I didn't." Asriel responded, sounding confused.

Behind her small mask she narrowed her eyes, something not seeming right here. "So Taylor's busy and you're not?"

"Yeah."

Poking the side of her mouth with her tongue in thought she realized something was definitely off here. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to try and figure it out while Taylor was injured like this, but it seemed like the only time she'd get an answer. "Well my name's Vista, what's yours?"

"I'm Asriel." She replied simply.

"I thought that was Taylor's hero name?" Vista questioned.

"Yeah."

Still not getting anywhere with this. "Why does she have your name as her hero name?"

"I messed up, said it when asked our hero name." She said, sounding ashamed for 'messing up'.

And she just said 'our'. Plural for people. And last time she checked there was only one person that she met named Asriel. That being Taylor and not… this person…? "So Taylor's away right now… where is she if you're here?"

"Still here, just hiding from the pain, not being in control puts a distance between her and it."

Not in control but still there? That made it sound like there were people in her head… along with the fact she just said 'our'... "Asriel are you and Taylor both in there? Like," She gestured to 'them'. "Same body?"

"Yep."

"But separate people?" One person coming to mind with people in their head was the Butcher, who when killed, would go on to possess the person that killed them. So it wasn't impossible for multiple people in a body.

"Yep."

Well… that was something. She felt slightly guilty about learning about this while they were in a hospital bed, but she could be a better teammate this way… why didn't she know before though? Plenty of reasons could come to mind actually, but only a few for being told now. Or just one which was just how injured they were. "Am I supposed to know Asriel?"

"Noooooo." They said, with a look of concentration on their face as their eyes slipped back into focus, compared to the almost glazed state they have been in up till now. Suddenly, they seemed to deflate. "I messed up again." They said morosely.

Frowning she gingerly reached out for their arm then paused remembering the burns and them talking about how much it hurt. Instead she laid her hand near theirs. "Hey, hey it's okay." She said trying to comfort Asriel. "You're hurt bad, it's not your fault."

"But I'm used to pain." They whined. "It's why I'm currently in control. I just keep spacing out, getting distracted."

Used to pain, well it sounded like he was used to being a hero. "You're missing an arm and you're nothing more than a lump of coal now. It's okay if you space out with all that." How could somebody not space out with all those injuries.

"But it's not the first time I messed up either. I just keep making her life harder."

Well like the Butcher with multiple people but thankfully not Butcher like in mannerism. She shook her head to that. "Well if you weren't there wouldn't she be in massive pain?"

Asriel's hand went behind their head as they rubbed it thoughtfully, not seeming to notice they were rubbing off pieces of charcoal. "I, um, think so. She might just have been unconscious." Then they seemed to notice something, and they patted the side of their head. "Huh, my ears are gone."

Leaning on the bedside she half-frowned at that. If it weren't for the fact she knew how much it must hurt, then she would have laughed at that. "You didn't realize that?"

"Well, I can't see them, and can't really feel they are gone over the pain." Asriel said, twisting their head back and forth a little, a motion that would probably set their ears swinging if they were still there. "That's probably why things are louder."

In massive pain in his own words but moving around like it didn't matter really, she wasn't quite sure how he did that just to check something. But there was something else coming to mind regarding Asriel. "Would you rather I don't say anything about you until Taylor… comes back?" They sounded so disappointed and sad that he said that and well, Taylor hadn't said anything about another person in her head as far as she knew. So maybe there was a reason they didn't say anything and she shouldn't say anything either.

Again, they rubbed the back of their head, might be a nervous habit of theirs. "Yeah, if you could. Taylor doesn't want to tell many people, people would treat her differently if they knew she had a voice in her head."

She nodded and looked over to the chair beside the bed, before sitting down beside it, stretching the space under her up a little so they could still talk. "I promise I won't say anything." She paused and looked him over again. As much as she wanted to learn more, they were still in major pain and that was more important. "You said it hurts right? If you want I can leave and come back to talk to you later?"

"I'm fine, like I said, I'm used to it." They said, waving off her concern, after a moment adding on, "Mostly. Besides, I'd have nothing else to do than just endure it on my own."

She nodded. "So since the cat's out of the bag should we do formal introductions or something?" She asked.

They nodded and turned towards her, holding out their hand. "Hi, I'm Asriel Dreemurr, nice to meet you."

She looked down at the offered charred hand. "Eh… wouldn't it hurt to shake hands?"

They simply stared at her for a moment, not understanding for a moment, before with a blink comprehension crossed their face and he smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, like I said I'm used to pain. You are suppose to shake hands when you make a new friend."

She shook her head. "And friends don't hurt each other. Especially when one's in a condition like yours."

They deflated a bit, seeming disappointed she rejected shaking hands with them, before shaking it off. He returned his hand to his lap and put on another smile "So what do you want to talk about?"

"Well first, I still need to introduce myself." She stood up and took a little bow as she said, "I'm Missy Biron. And well…" She looked them over as she sat back down. She sort of knew who Taylor was but not Asriel. "I know who Taylor is. Sort of. But who were you before you, well arrived in Taylor's body?"

A strange look passed over their face before it disappeared, if she wasn't paying attention she probably wouldn't have noticed. "I was Asriel Dreemurr, Prince of the Kingdom of Monsters."

A Prince of Monsters… that was something. Not what she was expecting. At all. Looking down at him and his charred, arm missing, body she wondered how he was used to pain. Because what could somebody do that makes them treat a missing arm, ear things and being burnt to a crisp like it was nothing "Why are you used to pain like this? Aren't Princes supposed to be pampered?"

He froze up for a moment, making her wonder if that was a poor choice of words, but before she could say anything he replied. "It's kinda a long story."

Something in his tone told her he didn't want to answer so she held her hands up. "If it's something you'd rather not answer that's fine. I just don't see how somebody's so lucid with a missing arm." She said to explain her question.

"I understand, it's just-" He sighed "a really _really_ long story."

She nodded, briefly wondering what story he would have to tell. Instead she switched gears to the fact he said monsters and the current form looked monsterish. A little bit, more like a child-friendly monster really/."Is that what you look like? Like your body I mean."

"Well, when I'm not burned, yeah. Fuzzy, floppy ears, two fangs." He finished off, poking said fangs.

Her eyes didn't follow him poking his fang and instead lingered on the shoulder with a ripped off arm, something white slowly trickling out with each minute movement. "Is that blood or something?" She asked gesturing with a gloved finger to the unknown trickle.

"Huh?" He said, turning to look at what she was pointing at. Seeing the dust slowly trailing off, he said. "Oh, kinda. Not really. A monster's body is made of this dust, held together by magic." He got a small bit in his hand and brought it before her. "When a monster is hurt, parts can disassociate from the rest of the body, and return to dust. Unlike with blood, once it disassociates, there's no use holding it in or anything, it's inert and will slowly crumble into nothingness." As he said so, the small pile in his hand slowly got smaller, and she could make out little white flecks disappearing. "For monsters, bandaging is mostly a cleanliness thing, so the dust doesn't get everywhere in the time it takes to fully disappear."

So Taylor had somebody in her head who knew exactly how her power worked then… huh. That was useful and he seemed nice enough to get along with. Also he bled dust. Something weird there. "That's interesting." Everything she was learning right now was interesting. "What's it like sharing a body with Taylor?"

"She's pretty nice, hasn't gotten mad at my for the other times I messed up, and lets me use the body sometimes." He said smiling, and after a moment added on "Though when we are in her body it's weird sometimes. Like pooping, feels so wierd."

She blinked at that, not expecting anything in the fucking least like that. Because who just comes out of nowhere talking about poop? "Uh… well that's… normal. You and Taylor like each other I'm guessing?" She asked to change the subject.

"Yeah!" He said happily, smiling. But after a moment, the smile became a bit nervous. "Well, I atleast think she likes me."

Well the Prince didn't seem to have much in way of confidence. In as re-assuring a tone as she could do she said, "I'm sure she does. I mean I like you."

His smile smoothed out. "Thanks."

He was a nice kid. Or at least he seemed like a kid. Should check that. "How old are you or do Monsters not keep track of that?"

"Oh, we do. At least till around the 200th birthday, but only Boss Monsters and Turtle Monsters usually live that long. I'm nine myself. How about you?"

The heck was a Boss Monster? "I'm twelve." No longer the child on the team it seemed. She took a moment before asking, "Can I ask how you and Taylor ended up like this?" An abrupt change in subject sure but it was a question that had been nagging her for a little while.

He seemed surprised by the question, and looked down. "O-oh. Well, I was, um, fading. And I got scared, I didn't want to, uh, fade away. So in my desperation, I reached across dimensions, and found Taylor, and made her an offer. In exchange for fusing Souls with me and sustaining me, she gained the ability to cast magic, and she accepted." This was not the type of answer she was expecting, nor the one she meant to ask. But that didn't sound like the normal way somebody got their powers, maybe something to ask around about later.

Quirking her lips, sort of realizing how he misunderstood the question, she said, "Asriel, that wasn't what I was asking."

"O-oh." He said, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Er yeah I was asking how you ended up like this." She gestured up and down to his body. "In the hospital and in pain… sorry about that." She said with a nervous chuckle.

"It's alright, it's my fault, I misunderstood you. Well, there was a gang fight, and Taylor decided that, since we were heroes, we should stop it. We did pretty well until Lung appeared, and we were able to hold him off for a while, but he got the drop on us by jumping through the roof of the building we were on. He grabbed our arm, and his ambient flame did the rest."

She balked at that, she knew something had gone down but hadn't known that the Lung alert was intertwined with the urgent medical assistance. She had thought that was part of the gang fight only, not having expected the crater or Lung. Wait, had that slab of meat further in the crater been.. "He did this to you two and you reduced him to a torso?"

"He had his legs too. Besides, he can heal, watched his skin start to regrow before Miss Militia and Armsmaster got there, he'll be fine."

Of course he was healing. That wasn't the hard part of believing it. "That's not my point. You reduced the strongest villain to that, somebody that took on a half dozen teams of capes by himself and walked away, practically unscathed. In your first fight." She said with an arm jutted out to the window. That more or less made the charred child in front of her the strongest or luckiest cape in the city. Maybe both.

Asriel blinked at her, surprised. "Golly, he's that tough? My Parents could do about as much as he was towards the end, and with his windup time, it seems like it'd be fairly simple to take him down early, if you had some non-lethal powers."

His parents could do that much? What type of parents could do something like Lung? And he was making it sound like it was trivial to beat Lung. "But it's not that simple! Everyone's who fought him was beat to the ground no matter what strategy they used!" Except for that crater. Last time she checked nobody tried blowing him up. "Minus whatever you did to that street."

Sheepishly, he said. "I kinda blew it up." Yep. "I didn't mean to, but when he tore off our arm, I kinda reacted and hit him with all the fireballs I had prepared. Next thing I knew, I was across the street and he was in the crater."

"Ah." Was all she had in response to that, all the information in the past few minutes. Taylor had a person named Asriel in her head, beat Lung on their first day, stuff about monsters and Souls. Almost too much to take in.

"So, how do your powers work?"

She blinked, that question having brought her out of her reverie. "What?"

"I have been trying to figure out how powers normally work, but that's hard with how many kinds there are that I keep hearing about." He explained. "Some things can be passed off as peculiar developments of the Soul, and applications of magic, but there's just _so many_ powers, and Tinker powers in particular are hard to pass off as that type of explanation. So, I'm learning what I can. How does your power work? Do you draw upon a inner well of power to change space? Or do you just cause space to change, without any noticeable source of power or tool?"

Oh he was asking how her powers worked. "It's not that hard to explain. The world is like wet clay and I'm just molding it how I want." But compared to the phrasing of his question it didn't sound technical. Leaning on the edge of the bed again she asked, "So how's your guys' powers work? I heard something about magic and Souls."

"Oh, Souls are the source of magic." He put his hand to his chest, and with a flick of his wrist a glowing yellow heart appeared in his hand over his chest, covered in cracks and slowly dripping yellow light. Around it orbited a few faint wisps of rainbow colored lights. "Someone skilled or trained can then channel this power and shape it into various magics. Like Fire Magic." At his mention, a fireball appeared beside him. "Bullets." Now silver light came into existence and seemed to weave together to form a featureless ball, floating beside the fireball. "And, if I can manage it, Electricity." His face scrounged up in concentration, and slowly beside the silver ball, a lightning bolt form, rippling and crackling with energy.

She nodded appreciatively at the displays of his powers despite the condition he was in. Two of which she hadn't even been aware that he could do just a few minutes ago. But after a few seconds she looked back at the Soul that was hovering over his chest and how it looked. "Is that supposed to look like that?"

Asriel shook his head. "No, it's damaged. Needs to heal. Want to see yours, for comparison?"

"You can do that?" She asked surprised at the offer. "Because if so, sure." She guessed she'd be curious as to what her Soul looked like.

He reached towards her, and brought his hand to right beside her breastplate, but not actually touching it, and she felt something thrum lightly inside her. When he withdrew his hand, a glowing purple heart came with with a black star in the center, and she could feel a deep connection with it. "That's your Soul."

How many powers did he have under his belt? Looking down at it she gently poked it, the Soul providing only a little resistance before she nudging it to the side, it feeling nice and warm to the touch. "Why's mine purple?" She asked, looking back up.

"Perseverance. You keep on trying, no matter what. It's one of your main aspects, and it manifests itself in your Soul here." He explained.

She smiled at that, thinking of how it matched her a bit. But it brought up something that puzzled her now that she thought about it, the way he had been talking about Souls and magic made it sound like there were multiple people who could do it. And he talked like powers and magic were interchangeable ideas despite his seemingly knowingness of what magic was. "Asriel you're making it sound like a whole bunch of other people can use magic."

"Well, yeah. It's hard to learn, but anyone can learn to do it in time. The greatest magicians in history have been Humans." He said it like it's no big thing, everyone in the world having the ability to learn to have the same powers he has.

Which also made her narrow her eyes behind her mask at him, wondering what history he was talking about. Because to her knowledge people didn't normally run around shooting fire or lightning in her history lessons. Something to ask about later she supposed. "So you're saying you could teach me how to do this stuff too?"

"Sure. Gonna take a while, Humans don't have the natural affinity for magic that Monsters do, but thanks to the power of a Human soul, those who do learn tend to be really powerful. Do you want to learn?" Azzy asked, an excited note entering his voice making it sound like he really wanted to teach her.

"When you get better sure. I'd love to learn." It would be cool to learn how to shoot fire and get new powers. Before anything else could be said somebody knocked on the door and she let the room return back to normal. Then she noticed their Souls still floating out in view. "One second!" She called to the door, before turning to Asriel. "Can you get rid of our Souls and uh magic stuff?" He nodded obligingly, and with a wave of his hand they disappeared. That done she called out to the door again, "Come in." The door opened up as Panacea came in. A mousy girl with her large white hood covering her frizzy brown hair and freckles, lower half of her face hidden by the red scarf around her neck. The robe itself was alabaster white with medic's red cross on the chest and back. Standing up out of her seat she looked to Asriel as Panacea paused by the doorway staring at him and said, "Asriel this is Panacea, her power is to heal anything. Panacea this is Asriel."

"Howdy." Asriel waved at her happily.

Panacea spent another few seconds staring at him before shaking her head and approaching the bedside, reaching it in a few steps thanks to Vista. "Um hi. You seem to be handling this all well."

"Yeah, I can ignore the pain pretty well." Again, he says it as if it's a normal thing.

Panacea took a deep breath before saying "Well let's fix that part then, shall we?" She reached out to him and laid her hands on him. A second passed before she blinked and looked from him to Vista. "Uh is Asriel in a Breaker state? Because I'm getting absolutely nothing from him."

"Er yeah. Asriel if you could go back to your other form?" Vista asked.

"Oh, sure, but the damage isn't in that form." As he was talking he already began shifting and growing, almost looking like flowing liquid as the charred lumps turned into a loose set of jeans with a just as loose jacket hanging off his frame, the backpack being the only thing that was close to fitting him. From the scalp sprouted a long head of hair, and all his limbs became long and thin.

So that was what Taylor looked like. And she looked perfectly fine. Panacea put her hands back down on him, or rather her, before saying. "No… Asriel's body is perfectly fine. I can't do anything for her."


	13. Distantly Close

Danny slammed the car door behind him as he ran up to the hospital door the news of his daughter being hurt having sent him speeding uptown. He knew it was a bad idea to let her do something like this, but he'd relented to her, having seen how happy she was after going to the PRT building. Hoping that whatever was off about her with this 'Asriel' could be solved by the PRT psychologists that would talk to her. Those two things had made him ignore his reservations about her getting hurt.

Now though as he ran past the waiting room and up to the elevator, impatiently hitting the floor she was on, he reflected back on that and knew he should have thought it through better. His daughter, fighting the supervillains and freaks of Brockton Bay? No, that was insane thinking on it, regardless of what she could do now. This was the second damn time she was put into the hospital.

The doors opened up and almost ran over the two PRT troopers standing in front of the elevator, stopped only by their training and preparedness for somebody to run in here. They both caught him and threw him back, catching him off-guard and making him stumble backwards. Catching himself he half-glared at them for getting in the way, despite it probably being their job. One of them held up a device that flashed like a camera, and after looking at it for a moment they put it away before stepping back and the one on the right pointed to his left. "You're wanting room 442. Sorry about the delay."

He was sure that the PRT trooper was going to add more but he ran past them and ignored what else they might have said, looking for the room they had said to go to. Counting up the numbers beside the doors he found himself heading towards a door flanked by two more PRT troopers that stepped out of the way when they saw him coming. And so he barreled through the hospital door and into the room, expecting to see the worse.

What he saw was Taylor sitting beside the child heroine Vista, looking perfectly fine if out of it. Slightly confused he nevertheless made to run to her side, but was stopped short by Miss Militia as she grabbed him by the shoulder. He hissed out at her, "What are you doing?"

Behind that scarf of hers he could tell she was frowning and whispered to him. "I need to talk to you Mr. Hebert." She ever-so gently, but firmly, pulled him back out of the room and didn't stop until they were by a window and out of the main hallways.

Shoving her hand off his shoulder he clenched his fists so hard they turned white and barely kept himself from screaming at her. "What do you want?"

Militia crossed her arms with a slight sigh. "I felt it was better I explained what's wrong with your daughter out here."

He stepped forward, suddenly focused on that bit of information, something wrong with his daughter he didn't see. "What is it?"

She held up her hands as if to calm him down. "Your daughter was injured in her Breaker state. Her goat form if you would. Unlike some others it doesn't transfer to her human form, hence why she looked fine when you came in."

"Is she still hurting though?" That was the first coming to his mind for her being here still if it didn't do anything to her normally.

"Yes she still feels the same pain from what she was injured by in her other form." He slumped against a wall, his fear having been realized. "And well your daughter is not here mentally at the moment." He half-jolted his head up at that, looking to her questioningly. "Asriel is currently in charge of their body according to what's been said so far."

He stared blankly at her for a moment. "What the hell are you saying?"

She took a deep breath before saying, "Asriel has said that Taylor is trying to hide from the pain right now." He slumped back down against the wall, not believing what he was hearing. "Some of our resident psychologists believe that your daughter is suffering from what's called dissociative identity disorder." Oh great, it even has a name for it. "We believe that she created another personality to act as protection, which coincided with her trigger resulting in Asriel who knew how her powers worked and could help her. And we believe that she's hidden herself inside her other persona at the time.

"To make matters worse," Of fucking course it would get worse, why wouldn't it get worse? She had a person in her head, was in extreme pain and was drifting away so why not more shit. "Drugs aren't helping with the pain she's feeling right now, nor is Panacea. We suspect it's from the fact it injured her other form which doesn't seem to have any organs or the like."

So he was stuck with the 'kid' Asriel for a while until she stops feeling pain, which even drugs wouldn't be able to help her with. And then there was the whole fact there was an official disorder for what was wrong with his daughter. He held his hands over his head for a moment before asking, "What even happened?"

He heard a movement beside him and she sounded closer, as if she crouched beside him. "They were doing something downtown, we're not sure what, and ran into Lung." The one man army freak running the Asian Boyz? The man who killed anyone that got in his way? "They won." Wait, what? "But they were badly hurt."

Something burned at the corner of his eye and when he reached to wipe it away, he realized it was a tear. He was out here crying while his daughter was in pain in the other room, hiding because no-one was there. Taking a deep breath and bracing himself against the wall he stood back up and asked her as she stood up, "So what do we do then?"

She shook her head. "Normally we'd keep her here since she's severely injured in her other state." She paused and crossed her arms again. "But after talking with our psychologists and looking on this, we think it might be best if she goes home with you. It's important for her to feel safe, so that hopefully she will stop hiding in her Asriel persona sooner."

"There's nothing you guys can do for the pain though?" He asked sadly, wanting something to help her. Militia shook her head though and he sighed turning back to go to the room, she taking the lead. It took only a short time before they were back by the room.

"Just remember she's neither coherent or really herself right now, both from her condition and from some drugs we tried to use to help." She said before opening the door back up and letting them back in.

The opening door seemed to have caught Taylor's attention, cause she turned to face him and with a goofy grin she greeted him "Howdy Mr Hebert."

He looked her over, trying to refer to her as Asriel or whatever, but all he could see on that hospital bed was his little girl. "Um hey Asriel." He moved over to her side and took her hand in his, Vista having moved out of the way. "How are you doing?" He asked with a pitiful smile.

"Got my arm torn off, and burned all over, but our soul stabilized so we aren't going to die." She too cheerfully responded.

He twitched at that, smile more or less frozen on his face at the moment. Their arm was ripped off… which Taylor couldn't help but feel and nothing could help with. And burned. Another twitch as his mind went over the implications of that before reaching over and wrapping her up in a hug, resting her head on his shoulder. "It's going to get better."

He could feel her return the hug, held back mostly by the fact he wrapped his arms around hers. "Yep. Should probably stock up on Monster Food for next time though."

At that he tensed up and twitched again. No, no this wasn't happening again. Never again. "No because I'm always going to be there for you." He said, hugging her closer.

She giggled like he told her some joke, and then he heard her recite like from a story book "'Mom! Dad! Somebody help me!' I called out." She paused, before continuing in a sing-song voice "But nobody came."

He only grabbed her tighter and ran his hand comfortingly over her hair. He knew she'd been drifting away, knew he should have been there more for her but he didn't know how badly she'd needed him. He half-turned to Miss Militia, Vista having disappeared, who was standing awkwardly by the door. "How soon can I take her home?"

"Right now. There's nothing we can do except handle the paperwork for you." She said sorrowfully.

He turned back to his daughter and asked tearfully, "Well want to go home Ta- Asriel?"

"Sure!." She chirped as she slid herself out of the bed and onto her feet, though as soon as she was up she started pitching and waving her arms trying to not fall over. To which he immediately reached out and grabbed her to keep her from falling over, pulling her into a half-hug again as he stood up with her.

Miss Militia walked over to a wheelchair that had been put in a corner and pushed it over to them. "You two just go on home, we'll handle everything else. The drugs should wear off in a few hours." He nodded a small thanks helping Taylor into the wheelchair before pushing her on out.

"Bye Vista!" Taylor called out over her shoulder, waving at the ward.

Pushing her on the way down to the exit he leaned down to ask, "Anything you want sweetie?"

"Pie." She said simply.

"Pie it is then." He said with a forced smile, taking her back home.

[hr][/hr]

He dragged the wheelchair that Taylor was in up the stairs, panting slightly with exhaustion from dragging her up, but he eventually did it. The whole while Taylor was just letting her head loll around, still drugged and pained out of her mind. "Well we're home sweetie." He panted opening up the door. "So you wanted some of that pie you made?" He asked to make sure.

"Yep." She said with a smile, before her expression became more wistful and she said in a voice not at all her own " _It's important to eat plenty and get a lot of rest when you don't feel well, so you can get nice and strong."_

He paused at that, despite the motherly and kind tone of the voice coming out of her mouth, it still sent a chill down his spine. Because it wasn't her voice. After a moment he shook his head and just shoved it away and filed it under powers, more intent on getting her the pie she wanted. So he moved them to the fridge so he could get the pie. Despite being in the fridge for a while it was still comfortably warm to the touch and so he grabbed a plate and fork for her to eat with. "Here you go." He said with another warm smile, moving her to the table and setting it in front of her.

"Awesome!" She said, grabbed a fork and cut off a large chunk, not even bothering to get a slice of the pie from the rest, before hurriedly shoveling it into her mouth. She shivered in pleasure once she got it in her mouth, and slowly chewed it for a few moments before blinking. She turned towards him and asked with her mouth full of pie "You want some?"

He just shook his head and patted her comfortably on the head. "I'm okay."

She nodded before swallowing and shoveling another chunk of pie into her mouth." He just watched as she kept going on, it almost seeming unbelievable that she was just in the hospital an hour ago. But it wasn't her though according to Miss Militia… it was some personality that Taylor made to hide from the world in. It was her though right? He didn't know anymore, all he knew is that he was just losing her more and more.

Eventually she slowed down, and then stopped, putting down the fork with a big sigh. "Full." She said simply.

"Well anything else you need?" He asked grabbing the plate and throwing it into the sink.

"A hug."

He paused with a small smile tugging at his lips for just a moment before he turned back around and kneeled down to hug her tight, which she returned in full. She'd been drifting away for years, first starting with high school, then the bullying that he knew she suffered from at school but didn't want to say anything about. Then his job taking up so much of his time, then now the fact she was trying to be a hero.

Even when he was hugging her close she still felt so far away.


	14. Psychologist Frederick

The home phone rang downstairs, it's ringing normally being something that would wake him up at this hour. The hour being seven and normally before he awoke. Recent events though had deprived him of some, no, most of his sleep. So he slipped out of his bed and padded downstairs, pausing by Taylor's room to look in on her and seeing her still asleep he went on by and on downstairs. Into the kitchen he went for the home phone and picked up it up, not wanting it to wake her up. Groggily he said, "Hebert residence."

A slightly chipper man's voice replied, "Hello Mr Hebert, this is the resident Wards Psychologist, how are you doing today?"

"Not well."

"Sad to hear that. The reason I am calling, is that you probably have some questions about your daughter's condition. I'd be happy to answer what I can, but I'd like to first have a session with your daughter. To get a better idea, and not rely entirely on second-hand reports. Does that sound alright to you?"

He blinked, not expecting that. "Uh, yeah sure."

"Great. Feel free to call back to set up an appointment whenever you have time, or think your daughter is up for it." The psychologist said, just as chipper as earlier. Then he hung up, leaving Danny alone to go check on Taylor again. Creeping up the stairs he checked on her again, taking a seat beside the bed and sighing slightly. It was all just too much for him. Her hurt, mental disorder, joining superheroes, his job just… just too much.

He apparently sighed too loudly, because then Taylor rolled over and opened her eyes looking at him. Seeing him, she smiled and said "Howdy Danny."

He forced a smile back, "Hey. You feeling better?" He asked brushing some hair out of her face.

"Some." She answered, shrugging her shoulders. "The pain has gone down a bit, and I can think clearer without those drugs."

"How's your… other body doing?" He asked having to sound it out first, it still sounding weird to say.

"Not sure." She said, sitting up. She was still in the same clothes she was wearing yesterday, having fallen asleep in them. She looked down at her lap in concentration, and then started shifting. Her clothing hardened and turned black, and when she finished she didn't look any better than she did before. Arm and ears still gone, still burned to a crisp, but as he looked closely he noticed that they weren't leaking dust like they were yesterday anymore. "A little bit better." She said in her younger, high pitched voice.

He grimaced as she looked her charcoal self over, knowing that was more painful than anything he could imagine. But yet she didn't even seem concerned, just looking herself over like it was something normal. It just made him feel worse and he almost raised a hand to hug her again but stopped, thinking it'd hurt more for him to hug her like this. So instead he forced another smile to his face. "Well why don't you take a shower and I'll make you something to eat then Ta-Asriel?"

"Alright." She responded as she shifted back to her human form and slid out of bed. She walked past him and out of the room, presumably to the bathroom to take the shower.

Rubbing his eyes he stood back up and went downstairs to make breakfast for her. Every person needs food to help get better for anything really. So he started making eggs as he heard the pipes creaking as the shower upstairs turned on. It took him a few minutes to finish cooking by which time the shower turned off upstairs. He set up the table while she dried off, making sure to give her more of the share.

"Smells good." He heard Tay say as she walked down the stairs.

"Feel free to he-" He said as he turned towards her, but stopped abruptly as he noticed something very important.

Taylor was naked.

His daughter was naked in front of him, in the kitchen. He managed to catch himself on the table before and he quickly averted his gaze from her, face burning as he asked "Why are you naked!?"

Out of the corner of his eye he could see her jump at him yelling and stammered a response "I-I just got out of the shower?" She sounded confused, as if she didn't understand what was wrong, and worried that she was being yelled at.

Ignoring that for right now, keeping his gaze firmly fixed _away_ from his daughter, he asked as calmly as he could "Could you _please_ put some clothes on?"

"O-ok." He heard her sullenly respond, and then heard he walk away and up the stairs. He mentally blanched at the fact his daughter seemed to be confused to the fact she needed to wear clothes when coming downstairs. But again he tried to attribute it to the injuries she was suffering from. Trying and failing because he couldn't believe that she came downstairs naked.

Shortly he heard her walking down the stairs, and a careful peek out the corner of his eye revealed that she was mercifully dressed. She also looking rather glum at being yelled at. He just sat down at his plate and awkwardly gestured to her plate. "J-just help yourself."

She nodded quietly, and sat herself in front of the plate. After poking at the food for a bit, she quietly asked "Did I mess up?"

He blinked, looking up at her to see her frowning. Again he sighed, running a hand over his face. Remember she's sick and in pain. "Asriel." He forced himself to remember to say that name instead. "Why did you think it was okay to come downstairs naked?"

"Is it not alright to be naked?" she asked confused. "It's fine in Monster society."

He needed to remember, that she was 'hiding' behind Asriel, who had his own history. Taking a deep breath he thought it over. "Your other form is Asriel's body right? Completely covered in fur where nobody can see any of the more… personal bits?"

"Personal bits?"

Oh god. Coughing slightly he said, "You've used the bathroom right? That's what I mean by personal bits. Other people aren't supposed to see that."

"You mean my butt?" She asked, starting to sound less sad and more curious, and even twisting some to look at her butt.

God it was almost worse than explaining to a child. "More the front part instead of the butt, along with your chest." Not something he'd been expecting to talk about at breakfast this morning.

"Why not?" She asked curiously.

"Because you're not supposed to show others those areas." He said with another sigh. He really hoped he wouldn't have to do the birds and the bees talk again.

"Oh, alright." She said before taking her first bite of food, sounding like she still didn't understand why, but was willing to take him at his word.

Thankfully. Taking a few bites of his breakfast he continued with, "The Wards Psychologist called me this morning. He'd like to talk to you when you feel good enough to go back out."

"Ok." She replied simply.

"So uh, when you feel alright later, we should go talk to him." He said himself.

"Sure. You know what he wants to talk about?" She asked.

For some reason he felt as if telling 'Asriel' that they wanted to talk to him because he was a problem of Taylor's mind didn't sound like a good idea. So instead he settled for a half-truth. "You're the only person I know of that shares a body with somebody else, so they want to check on you and make sure you're alright."

"Oh, alright." She accepted easily.

Glad she accepted that he returned to eating and after he was done, started cleaning up.

[hr][/hr]

Frederick hummed to himself as he reviewed their soon to be newest member's profile or notes they had so far. Quite a unique person she was. Somebody with a dissociative identity disorder that managed to take out THE Lung. Not the best of things to have combined together. And for evidence of it was a video of Taylor arguing with Asriel in her own head, when they first arrived for some testing with shouting and then one of the two breaking down and crying at the prospect of hurting the other.

Followed by Asriel easily and quite quickly accepting all blame for what happened with Lung. Then their power seemingly interacting with her disorder, with Asriel knowing how to use their powers while she did not. And finally with his notes he noted that it seemed to be Taylor's shield from reality, currently leaving Asriel in charge while she 'hid' from the world until they healed All just adding to the idea of it being DID compared to something like Butcher's mind transfer or whatever that was.

Sure he had only a slight idea of how to handle it but everyone had to start somewhere didn't they? He sighed slightly, moving the notes out of his way on the desk and clearing it up, looking up at the clock to see they should be coming in soon. A knock on the door made him think it was them so he got up and crossed his room to the door. Past the couch for his patients, the shelf filled with various books and puzzles like rubik's cubes or finger traps and to the door with a cat poster on it.

Truth was it wasn't even his room for more than a month before he transferred over to another department. But as he came to the door and opened it he still considered it his. And outside his door was both Taylor and Danny.

He gave Taylor a onceover, seeing her dressed in a dark hoodie and sweats, giving him a smile of her own. Or rather Asriel because last he checked Taylor was still supposed to be 'hiding'. While Danny looked tired with bags under his eyes and gave a tired smile. "Good morning you two." Looking more so at Danny he added, "I'll be taking a little while to talk to Asriel here so if you could wait in the lobby?" Danny nodded as Frederick turned to Asriel. "If you'll just follow me back inside?"

"Alright." He happily said.

He nodded a goodbye to Danny as they went back into his office. "Okay Asriel, just go ahead and make yourself comfortable wherever you want." He said gesturing around to both his chair, the couch and floor. He'd met some people who preferred the floor before.

Asriel sat himself on the couch and said "I'm sorry, but I don't know your name."

He smiled at him. "Well my name's Frederick, it's nice to meet you." He said offering a hand as he passed by the couched while heading to the desk to pick up a pad to write notes on.

Shaking his hand with a smile, he responded with "Howdy Dr Frederick, I'm Asriel Dreemur."

"So I've been told." He said reached past him for the writing pad and sitting back down in his seat. "To start out with I usually have my patients do whatever they want to get more comfortable so if you want to grab a puzzle," He gestured to the shelf full of them, "Or change into your other form or anything else like that, feel free. Otherwise we can start when you're ready."

Asriel shook his head. "I'm good."

"Alright then, so I've got some information from what others have told me, such as being the Prince of Monsters, an expert in magic and some other various information. So the first question I have is how is life as an average human?" From what information he got from his notes, it showed that they had quite the imagination for where Asriel came from.

"Well, Taylor has been handling most of it." He began. "But what I have gotten to do has been nice."

What kind of stuff has that been? Hanging out with friends, family, cooking or something?" He asked, it's better for clarification on what possible type of things he's enjoying.

"Well, I got to cook a pie with Danny." He said with a smile, before pausing. "Though, I did use magic to do that, so that's not an average human thing. Nor was the spar with Aegis." He put on a small, thoughtful frown. "I don't think I have done any average human things. Taylor did all those."

He scribbled some of that down, enjoyed baking and sparring. "But did you enjoy whatever it is she did, even if you weren't the one who did it?"

He shrugged. "Sometimes. I liked helping her with her schoolwork, and it was interesting to learn about Human History directly. Though some stuff is weird, like digestion, and pooping." He finished with another small frown.

Frederick blinked before shrugging. "A fan of learning new things then?"

He nodded his head enthusiastically. "Yeah! Particularly history, because we didn't get a bunch on it after we were were trapped in the Underground, and we didn't receive stuff on it as often as we did science and other modern stuff."

He quirked his lips thinking for a moment. "How old are you Asriel?" The way Asriel was talking reminded him of some well-mannered children he had lived next door to once.

"Nine."

Nine? Maybe a representation of when she wished she could return to an earlier time in life when things were simpler? Would sort of explain wonder at learning new things. "Well how is Taylor's average citizen's life compared to that of a Royal monster?" Kids always wanted to be kings or queens or princesses or superheroes these days. So there's that.

"Well, the biggest difference so far I guess is going to school. I was always home schooled myself."

"Nothing else? No castle, no royal servants? The only difference is going to school now?" He asked curiously. Because all of those things were some of the first things that came to mind when thinking of royalty.

He shook his head. "Besides the big garden and the buildings surrounding it, our house wasn't much different from other monsters houses."

"Is that old house of yours comparable to the one that you and Taylor live in now? I mean can you describe it somewhat?" He asked, not sure what an average monster's house was like.

He looked up thoughtfully "Well, it was only one story, and made from stone not wood. But otherwise, yeah."

So royalty without the castle or anything. Maybe that meant just a want for the title alone? "Huh, well when most people talk about royalty there's often thoughts about castles or maids or what-not. Well since your home is different than from what I imagined, what was your upbringing like?"

That got a wistful smile out of them. "Mom and Dad were always nice, my Mom showing me how to cook and use some Fire Magic, while Dad showed me how to garden. I didn't have any friends for a while, I guess kids were a bit too intimidated to really want to play with the Prince. At least, that was until-" Asriel suddenly stopped, and his expression changed to a nervous frown. Ducking his head some and glancing at him out of the corner of his eye, he continued "I, um, don't want to talk about it."

He nodded, scribbling a note down about him clamming up slightly, before smiling at him. "Alright, how about something else then? Like say how you and Taylor are doing with sharing a body?"

"It's been alright. It is Taylor's body, so it's her right to use it the most." He declared, before adding mostly to himself "I shouldn't even be here."

He frowned at that last mutter, it being something he scribbled down along with it being Taylor's body. He put the pad down for a moment to lean forward and clasp his hands together. "Why would you say that?"

His expression became sad as he explained "It's her body, I tricked her into letting me in. Even if she insists that she'd rather me here than gone, I still shouldn't have done that."

Frederick frowned at that, it not being something he was expecting. That statement raised a few more questions to an ever growing pile, his notes only helping a little bit.. Asriel coming into existence was referenced once so far, it being something about sharing a soul. Something else to ask about too. "Maybe you could give me a little more information as to how you arrived? All I have is something about you and her sharing a soul."

He looked nervous again, fiddling with his fingers and not looking up at all, and Frederick thought for a moment that he'd refuse to talk about this as well, when he spoke up "I, uh, wasn't exactly dying, but it was almost worse than just dying. I was afraid to go, so I took the one way out I knew of. Fusing my soul with a human's. Couldn't do it with any human, people would understandably be hesitant to take my soul into theirs. So, I looked for someone desperate, someone I knew I could talk into anything, and I found Taylor. And then I tricked her, I didn't tell her all the details, I twisted the truth, and I tricked her into taking me into her" His voice began to waver, and he noticed tears began to stream down his face.

Frederick leaned forward slightly with a frown, for as much as he wanted the information he was getting, he figured it was better to keep him happy. "If you want we can take a break Asriel."

He nodded as he whipped at his face with the sleeves of his shirt. "O-oh, ok."

Giving Asriel a small smile he put his notepad down for the moment and offered, "Want some water?" He could use a drink himself, while Asriel calmed down. Asriel quietly nodded while still pawing at his eyes. Frederick nodded as he stood up to go get some water. "Alright then, I'll be back in a minute then." With that he left the room to go to the water cooler a little walk's away. While thinking about how to handle Asriel as a patient. Once he already asked to not talk about a subject, then just now Asriel had cried because he had lied to Taylor.

He really wasn't sure what way to take the information he'd had gained so far. Other than Asriel seeming to be a sweet child persona with a somewhat simple life according to the way his home was described. Frederick also questioned why it was like that and a he too. Sighing he came to the cooler and grabbed two cups of water, drinking one and throwing it away before heading back to the room with Asriel. Over the minute that had passed Asriel hadn't done much if anything he saw, just seeing that he had stopped wiping at his eyes. Was still red-eyed and everything that entailed him having cried earlier. Stopping beside him Frederick offered the cup of water. "Here."

"Thank you." He said, taking the cup and sipping it it, still staring at the floor in front of him.

Frederick nodded and sat back down in his chair. "I just want to remind you that if at anytime you feel uncomfortable, upset or anything along those lines, you just need to tell me and we can switch to something else or take a break like this. Okay?"

Asriel nodded. "Okay."

Frederick smiled once more before returning to his notepad to scribble out ideas and ways to interpret the given information. "So just let me know whenever you feel better and we can get back to questions." He said before turning to his clipboard to begin trying to think of all the possible ways why Asriel was the way he was as a persona, which truthfully Frederick made little progress with.

About two minutes later, Asriel took a deep breath and sat up straight and said "Okay, I can continue."

Turning back around he thought for a moment before asking, "A question slightly related to you, if Taylor is still 'hiding' from the pain, how or why are you so lucid right now?"

Asriel just shrugged in response "I have had to deal with pain a lot in the past, I got used to it."

More evidence for it being a persona to handle what she couldn't. But he was still surprised at the idea of somebody completely and easily handling something that made others unconscious. Scribbling it down he moved on. "May I ask what made you used to it?"

He rubbed his arm in another nervous display "I, uh, had to fight a lot, some people were really strong, so they really beat me a lot."

Frederick wasn't sure whether to continue questioning for more information or to stop as Asriel had seemed nervous about the question. Deciding against it he moved onto something else. Something that he thought might help him figure out what Asriel was like more so. "Alright, let's do a change of pace. I'd like you to tell me what you'd like most out of your life right now. Something like a nice movie with friends or going hiking or things along those lines."

Asriel seemed caught off guard by that question, staring at him in surprise and taking a few moments to process it. "I… guess I'd like to, uh-" he paused for a few moments, thinking over what to say next. "A movie with friends sounds nice. Or maybe some gardening."

Frederick nodded, writing it down. "Alright, how about a life goal? Like something you just said but more long-term."

That question stumped him even more. After about half a minute, he finally answered "I-I don't know. I have just been going along with what Taylor wanted."

He frowned but nodded again anyways, remembering that he did say that they still felt the pain. "Well we can return to this later when you're in less pain, if you want?"

"Alright."

He wrote down something to remind himself of that question for later. That's when he noticed one question he hadn't asked yet but had written down earlier. "Asriel, earlier when you were drugged up you sang something about mom and dad, followed by 'Nobody came'. What was that about?"

Asriel looked at him confused. "I did what?"

"Yesterday," He glanced down at his notes. "When Taylor's father tried to assure you that you weren't going to be hurt again, you said, 'Mom! Dad! Somebody help me!' I called out. But nobody came.' This mean anything?"

Asriel slowly shook his head. "No. I have no idea what that was about."

He shrugged, just writing down a question of where in fact that came from. "Well drugs don't help people think. Much less someone in pain. Next item, what is the thing you dislike most about your situation right now? By situation I mean sharing a body and mind with Taylor."

"When I mess up, and make things worse for people. Which I seem to keep doing." Asriel replied readily.

That seemed to line up with his other answers so far. "What are you defining as something you messed up?"

He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, this morning I really upset Danny. Apparently Humans are suppose to always wear clothes."

Frederick paused for a moment, wondering how in the hell a persona forgot, or, didn't know to wear clothing. How did that connect to everything else? "Um… yes that's a thing. A different example?"

"I accidentally told Vista about me yesterday, even though Taylor wanted to keep it a secret."

Wasn't that when he was drugged up? Though he could understand why she might try to keep it a secret. "So Taylor wanted you to be a secret with the Wards?"

"Yeah. She wanted me to be a secret in general, till I blew it and yelled at her in front of Armsmaster." He said sullenly.

Looking his notes over quickly he came across the first mention of Asriel. When they started yelling at each other about how Taylor almost blew them up. Scrutinizing it for a moment he said, "Isn't this the time when she almost blew the two of you up? If you hadn't of yelled wouldn't she be, well… dead?"

Asriel shook his head. "No, I yelled at her after I diverted the fire-ball."

Oh. "Well it's hard to keep things straight in the heat of the moment. Much less when you're drugged and in pain like you were yesterday with Vista." He said trying to reassure him.

Asriel shook his head. "I wasn't drugged when I told Vista yesterday. And those weren't the only times. I also covered the city with lights a couple days ago without thinking, just because someone asked how big I could do it."

He frowned, not sure how to address that. "Everyone makes mistakes, so as long as you make up for it." A poor way of addressing that but it really was all that was coming to mind, as he looked up to the clock in the room. Oh it was time for it to end. Great… "Sadly it seems that our time is over."

Asriel nodded, seeming to shove aside the sad expression he had till now and replaced it with a small smile. "Ok. Now what?

"The session is over so you're free to go. But there are a few things I would like to address before you do go if you don't mind." He said putting the notepad down.

"Sure."

"Alright, firstly due to you and Taylor's nature of sharing a body and mind, you'll both be having weekly sessions, compared to the usual monthly checkup. Second I'd like you to keep a journal and record your thoughts on the day, what made you sad, happy, mad or whatever.." He said listing off the things that could help him or were part of Taylor's special treatment.

"Like a diary?" Asriel cut in, curiously asking.

He nodded. "Yeah, I just normally refer to them as journals. Then finally I want you to know you can come in and talk to me anytime you want to. Or even come in just for some time to think silently to yourself." He finished with a smile.

Asriel nodded dutifully. "Alright."

Standing up he walked a few steps over and offered a hand to Asriel. "Well it was nice meeting you, I believe there should be a Ward outside to keep you company while I talk to Danny."

Asriel stood up and shook his hand. "See you later, Doctor." With that Asriel left the room, with Frederick following closely behind him. Outside he saw Danny waiting on a single seat, immediately popping up as they exited the room, while the junior heroine beside him slowly stood up. Vista. Hmm considering that she knows about Asriel it seemed as if she might be the best Ward to keep him company.

Asriel perked up when he saw Vista, and immediately went over to talk to her. While Danny immediately went to him, looking worried, but before he could say anything Frederick gestured to the room and looked to the two heroes. "It'll be about an hour or two before I'm done talking with Danny and then we'll come get you okay?" A nod from Asriel before he went back inside his office after Danny.

Again gesturing to Danny, this time to sit down, he went to his table and notepad. "Alright Mr. Herbet, here is the hard part between you and me. I got a decent amount of information from Asriel but now I need you to help me frame what Taylor was like before all this. So let's get right into it." Frederick said flipping through the notes and looking back up to Danny who now seemed to look determined to do this. She was his daughter after all.

AN: So I'm studying psychology in college and have taken a few high school courses in it, so I felt as if I could BS the pscyhology bit of this somewhat decently.


	15. Lessons

Vista sat quietly beside Danny as they both waited for Taylor, or rather as she knew Asriel, to come out of the psychologist's office. The higher-ups thought that Asriel needed somebody to walk them around while they recovered and that somebody needed to keep an eye on them. They had said it was due to a mental condition that was almost unique to Taylor but hadn't said what, though thanks to yesterday Vista knew exactly what that condition was. And she was more than willing to volunteer to be the one who would watch over them.

So after saying hello to Danny she sat down and waited quietly for Asriel and/or Taylor to come out. Ten minutes of waiting and the door opened up with this month's psychologist and Taylor with bags under her eyes. She seemed to perk up as soon as she saw Vista and went over to her while Danny headed straight for the psychologist.

"Howdy Vista." He greeted her happily, making a beeline towards her. Okay so this was Asriel and Taylor was still unconscious or however that worked. "So you're the Ward who's suppose to spend time with me while Danny talks to Dr Frederick?"

She nodded. "Yeah I felt as if we should get to know each other better so I volunteered. So want to go back to the Ward's HQ and wait for Danny?" She asked gesturing towards the way that led to said HQ.

"Sure." He said happily, smiling at her.

Before she could respond Frederick said, "It'll be about an hour or two before I'm done talking with Danny and then we'll come get you okay?" Which Asriel nodded to before both him and Danny went inside the office leaving the two heroes outside.

"Well come on then." She said waving him on after her and leading the way on down to the door of HQ. Looking back over him, she noticed the bags under his eyes. "You have some bags under your eyes Asriel, have you been sleeping alright?"

"Oh, I didn't sleep last night." He casually said shaking his head. "Mostly spaced out, focusing on the pain."

She almost tripped as he said that, quickly catching herself and frowning to him. "It's so bad you can't even sleep?"

He raised an eyebrow at her "Yeah? I was only barely lucid yesterday, too focused on the pain, remember? So of course I couldn't empty my mind enough for sleep."

Vista looked him over, seeing how he walked in a straight line, back straight, no wavering in his voice she shook her head. "You just seem to be over it is why I'm a bit surprised. Most people in pain like that would pass out and everyone else would at least limp a little, while you're just walking completely fine." She said to explain it as they stopped before the elevator leading down to HQ.

He just shrugged in response "Like I said, I have gotten used to it. The fact that I was out of it yesterday was a testament of how badly hurt I was. But it's gotten better."

And again with the fact he's used to things like this. A silent sigh from her before pressing the buttons to go down. "Well at least it is getting better for you then. So what'd you think of Frederick?"

"He was nice. A bit distant, but," he shrugged "we only just met."

She shook her head as the door opened up and they walked down the hallway. "Alright. So what do you want to do to pass the time then Asriel?" She asked stopping before the door to open it up for both of them.

"Well… what do _you_ like to do?" He said a bit nervously.

She shrugged, door opening. "I just read or watch some TV when I'm not training or anything." Then she went on into the room, Asriel following behind. "Why?" She asked, not sure why he was asking beyond him not wanting to pick anything for himself.

"Oh, what kinds of books do you read?" He asked curiously, interest plain on his face.

"Adventure kinds, mostly magic ones." She answered, passing through the main room and monitors, heading on towards her room and pausing, before gesturing to it and asking, "So want to hang in my room for a bit while we're waiting?"

"Sure." He happily said. "You got any of those books here?"

She nodded, opening the door to her room in the Wards base, it sliding into the wall. "A few of them, you wanting to read them?" She asked stepping into her room, a familiar mixture of home and business, thankfully the worst parts of home completely absent. A dresser, a small bed for herself, bookcase and a mirror. Not the most decorated room but wasn't spartan like Shadow Stalker's. Well how it was once, since she wasn't part of the team anymore.

"If you don't mind. It'd be nice to read something new."

She nodded and went on to her bookcase looking them over. "Well I have a good dozen or so, what'd you like?" She asked once more turning to Asriel.

"All kinds, learned to not be picky. What do you suggest?" He asked, wandering over to look at her bookcase with her.

Shrugging to herself she grabbed one and handed it over, giving a brief overview of the book. An orphan thief that looked like the dead prince and an evil baron takes the thief to try and get a claim to the throne. It being one of her favorites.

"Ooo, that sounds interesting." He happily said while gazing at the book in his hands, before a look of realization crossed his face. "Oh, didn't you say earlier you'd want to learn magic? Wanna give it a try now?" He asked excitedly.

She frowned slightly looking him over, "Well if you think you're okay to, sure." He did say he still felt all that pain but was just somehow used to it. So she was kind of worried about him trying to teach her right now.

"Yes!" He cheered, and put the book on a table nearby, before beginning to shrink, clothes shifting around him, and turning black, his right arm disappearing entirely. As he finished changing however, she noticed he wasn't entirely black and charred over any more, there were patches of white here and there too. "Huh." He said, examining himself, flexing his remaining arm some. "I'm not leaking dust anymore, that's good."

She just stared for a few moments, sort of glad to see him looking better but knowing that it still looked painful. Was still painful. So much she couldn't believe that he was just shrugging it all off. And after a few moments of looking over the patchwork of charred 'flesh' she realized something and looked away, blushing slightly. "Um Asriel. You're not wearing clothes."

"Um, yeah?" He asked confused, before continuing. "Oh, right, human society says you are suppose to always wear those." As he was saying this his voice deepened some back to 'Taylor's Voice', and when she glanced again, he was back in her form, hand on his chin and a thoughtful frown. "But I can't do magic in a human form, and I don't have other clothes. I don't really think I should try shape-shifting yet either."

She coughed slightly, not expecting that but glad there was no view and the fact he wouldn't be trying anything yet while still looking so injured. "Maybe it's for the best, you shouldn't be trying anything too hard looking like that." Shrugging she added, "How about just giving me steps for however magic is supposed to feel and etcetera? Something that we can do without you using magic?"

He shook his head in response. "Isn't that simple. You'd need to learn to feel your soul, which is most easily done by stimulating it. The magic isn't hard, shouldn't interfere with my healing too much." He sighed in frustration. "What does humanity have against nudity anyways?"

"It's just uh, not right." She said haltingly. "How about telling me how it should feel or meditation or something? An idea of what to do when you feel better."

He sighed again. "Again, it's not that simple. It's like trying to say what taste is, to a person who has never tasted anything. They'd probably not even know what taste _is_ , till they taste something. Which is the goal behind the stimulation of the soul, for you to feel magic coursing through you, and then to try to track down the feeling to your soul later." He fell quiet for a bit, thinking, before seeming to get another idea. "Could I borrow a shirt of yours or something? That way I won't be naked, and I can still help you."

She nodded before getting up and heading over to her dresser. "It's just I'm kind of worried because most other people that look as bad as you are normally dead." Grabbing a shirt she went back to Asriel and handed it over. "So please don't try anything strenuous just to teach me."

He shook his head and started changing, which she took as a cue to turn around so as to not see him naked. "Don't worry, other than manifesting your soul, it takes even less magic than Ethereal projections. The simplest form of magic." He explained. "Alright, got your shirt on."

She turned back to him now, seeing her shirt draping over his form, all the way to his knees even. Thankfully covering any part of him. "Okay so uh, should we take a seat?" She asked looking to the bed.

"Sure. Feeling magic for the first time can be kinda shocking, so it'd be best to do it while sitting." He said, heading to her bed before plopping himself down, and patting the spot beside him.

Stepping after him she took a seat beside him and held her hands in her lap. "Okay, ready."

"Alright, first I need to manifest your soul. Makes it easier to interact with." As he explained, he first held out his hand towards her chest as he did before, before pulling it back and a purple heart appearing. Her soul, as he calls it. "Alright, now this is going to feel wierd, ready?" Not sure what to expect she simply nodded.

He held out his hand mimed like a gun, pointed right at her soul, and then something that looked like static jumped from his finger to her soul. As soon as it connected, she felt energy running through her, feeling like electricity in her chest, in her heart. It made her jump back a bit, hand going to her heart and breath catching, as that had felt wrong being 'poked' like that. Just something that hadn't felt right. Looking at Asriel again she had to ask, "Is it supposed to feel like that?" Because it certainly didn't feel like it was right.

"Probably. How did it feel? Most people describe their first sensation differently." He asked curiously.

"It felt wrong." She said simply, getting her breath back to normal from that surprise. "Just like it wasn't supposed to be like that."

"It's normal if it felt uncomfortable, I did pretty much poke your soul. But what did it feel like? Fire? Electricity? Cold? Light?" He asked again.

She thought for a second back, ignoring the wrongness of the feeling. "Uh electrical."

He nodded. "That's a common one. Mine felt more like fire, burning in me. That's suppose to be common among Boss Monsters though, we have an affinity with fire. Now, focus on that feeling, and more specifically, where you felt it. Can you feel anything now?"

Trying to focus on where it had felt wrong earlier she thought she felt something. In the center of herself, like her heart. "It uh kind of tingles?" She said not sure how to describe it. Her hand went over top of her heart where that little feeling was.

"Good, now focus on it. See if you can do anything with it, make it move, become more tingly, or anything. If you lose the feeling, tell me, and I can stimulate your soul again so you can find it." He replied happily, sounding really excited to be teaching her.

She frowned slightly not sure how to do that but shrugged, deciding to try anyways. Because it definitely was something she hadn't felt prior to him 'zapping' her. So she just focused on the weird tingliness and tried to imagine it moving. A while of focusing and the tingling had faded a little to her mind and she frowned again, trying to think of another way to move it. Instead she reminded herself she was feeling this and Asriel kept talking about how it was a part of her. So perhaps trying to 'physically' move it?

Another few minutes of simple silence in her room while she tried to move it before she thought she felt something shift. "Woah," Asriel exclaimed in astonishment across from her, prompting her to open her eyes and see him staring at her heart-soul-thing in fascination. "You actually did it."

She blinked looking to her floating heart, seeing nothing different. "Uh I did?" Sure she thought she felt something but how could he tell?

"Your soul," He explained, pointing at the heart between them, "you moved it. I wasn't expecting you to be able to do that for at least another week, if not longer."

She looked to her heart, not noticing in the least it having moved. "So I'm good at this then?" She asked not knowing exactly what that all meant beyond him not expecting it soon.

"If figuring it out so fast wasn't just luck, then yeah! Try to do it again." He prompted.

"Okay." She said trying to do what she had just done a few moments ago, closing her eyes in concentration again. Vaguely like trying to flex but yet not at all like that. It took her a few moments before she felt if shift again. Opening an eye she looked to her heart, it looking a little moved. Maybe? "Did I do it again?"

"Yep!" He happily announced. "You learned to do it really fast!" He beamed at her.

She smiled back at the charred goat. "Yeah I guess I did!" Oh this could be fun learning a new power if it really was like he kept talking about. "So what next? Keep trying to move it?"

"Yeah! Get use to the feeling and being able to locate it. Try increasing it if you can. That will probably take a while, but you learned this step so fast, so I don't know." He said in wonder.

She nodded, trying to do that again now, keeping her eyes open to watch the heart for any movements like Asriel was saying it had done so far. Deciding to ask a few questions while trying to keep moving it she asked, "So how long did it take you to learn magic?"

He blinked at her question, seeming a bit surprised, before answering "I'm a monster, magic comes naturally to us. There are still magical exercises we can do, but the simplest expressions of it are pretty much instinctual. We don't have the raw power humans have though once they figure it out."

She cocked her head, forgetting to try and move her 'heart' for the moment. "So I'm technically stronger than you?" Because he seemed plenty strong when he fought Lung earlier and leveled a building.

Asriel shook his head. "Probably not. I'm not just a monster anymore, Taylor fused her soul with mine, allowing us to benefit from her power, and my skill. Here, look." He brought his paw to his chest, and with a flourish his heart appeared again, still cracked but no longer dripping light, and the rainbow wisps seemed to look a bit brighter. "See the wisps? That is a side effect of our fusion, a human soul is normally completely self contained, like yours. A monster's soul on the other hand," He moved his hand to the side, and stuck his tongue out and furrowed his brow in concentration, and slowly a white heart formed over it, upside down. "Are far less powerful, but can easily expel it's magic, not having a hard 'shell' holding it all together." He explained, poking it causing it to lightly deform around his finger. "When a monster soul is damaged, it doesn't crack like a humans, but rather just turns to dust." He waved his hand at it and it shattered into a million pieces, that shimmered in the air for a bit before disappearing.

"Oh." She said simply. She wondered for a brief moment as to what the other Monsters were like before returning to trying to move her heart again. A slight shift in her actual heart and she finally saw the soul-heart thing move a little bit. More like a twitch. "What are the little wisps supposed to be then? Just… some weird version of a Soul?"

"They're magic. Like I said, in a human's soul, all the magic is self contained. That makes it very hardy, being able to even exist past the death of the body for a short while, but also prevents it from easily casting magic. A monsters lets the magic out easily, making them comparatively fragile, and crumble to dust along with the body. This fusion soul, on the other, seems to have a semi-permeable barrier." His voice got a bit more serious, like he's thinking hard on what he's saying, and he leaned in to look closely at his soul. "I guess the wisps kept on the outside are the easily accessible bits of magic let out by the soul but not completely released into the world. Let's see…" He trailed off, and as he did so two glowing balls formed to either side of him. They slowly grew bigger, and bits of the wisps began to disappear, only to be replaced by more wisps flowing out of the heart. He nodded to himself "Yep, looks like I was right."

She nodded to that source of information, getting a bit of information on all this new stuff, making the floating heart twitch again. "Alright. Are there any uh, human magicians or anybody to compare me to?" She asked, since most if not all of his information seemed to be about Monsters.

He shook his head. "I only know so much about human magicians from my mom and dad and Old Man Gerson. They are among the few who were alive before The Great War to know any human magicians."

Great War? What? "So I'll be the only person to learn magic that you know of?" She asked, having hoped of some type of comparison. But she guessed she wouldn't get one, beyond him just being happy that she's doing better than expected.

Asriel shook his head again. "Taylor doesn't really count, being part monster now and having me who can show her directly what she needs to do, and Chara didn't have time to learn." He paused, when he said that, eyes opening wide in surprise, and uttered a small "Whoops."

Vista stared at him for a few moments, not sure why he said whoops like he did just now. "Um… whoops what?" She wondered as to who Chara was for a moment, both because they were one of two names listed by Asriel and because he had immediately followed it with a whoops.

"Uh, heh, it's nothing." He said, smiling nervously while rubbing the back of his head.

She stared at him for a few moments with slightly narrowed eyes, just watching him as he kept looking nervous. Then she finally shook her head. "Alright then." She kept wondering as to who Chara was, moving the heart once more again. She instead asked, "So how are you doing?"

He looked relieved at the topic change, and replied "Alright." He paused for a bit, before continuing a bit morosely "Got in a bit of trouble this morning, upsetting Danny before I learned that humans are suppose to wear clothes while around each other."

She chuckled a little at his expense. "Is it really that uncommon for you guys to wear clothes?"

"Well, not uncommon. Lots of people wore clothes, but only because clothes looked nice. There is absolutely nothing wrong with not wearing any in Monster Society."

She cocked her head before shaking it again. "Well I'm glad you learned it's not the same here." She moved the heart again a bit more, it being a bit more noticeable than a twitch this time. "So how long are you expecting to be hurt like this?"

He shrugged in response. "I don't know, never been fused with a human for long before, and beforehand I usually just… did something that's not an option anymore."

She paused for a second, wondering what this option was. "Which is?"

"A power that I had, which I can't use any more." He vaguely explained.

She frowned at him, stopping in her practice with the purple heart. "You're not going to say what it is, are you?"

"Well…" He began, seeming to think hard on it. "I guess it isn't something Taylor said we should keep secret." Wiggling some to reset himself across from her, he began "I used to have a power called DETERMINATION, and with it, I could rewind time back to before I got hurt. I'm not sure if we still have that power or not, and the only way I'm aware of to find out… is to die and see if we come back."

She leaned back in surprise at that statement, being the furthest thing from her mind when she was wondering. "Uh… that power… sucks." She said, that being the only thing she could think of saying.

Asriel shrugged in response "Mostly just the learning of it that sucks. Once you learn and master it, you load 'saves' at will. And it's useful if you have to do something dangerous where you're likely to die till you get it right."

She still shook her head with a slight shiver. Dying to learn to use a power. Did not sound fun or something she'd want to try at all. "Yeah, still not not something good."

Again he shrugged "But yeah, that's why it's not an option. Just have to wait it out." He paused for a bit, before continuing "I should probably stockpile on Monster Food before next time, cause eating a bunch would help the healing process. Making some now would just be counterproductive though."

She just nodded to that, not sure what to say to that either. She looked to the floating heart again and decided to focus on that now.


End file.
